NightBlogger

Iran reports testing a new long-range surface-to-surface missile (Sejil) with a range of 1200 miles just days after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps tested another new missile, the Samen, near the Iraqi border. Meanwhile, a former Israeli military general claims “Israeli armed forces have the ‘right capabilities’ to launch a successful strike against Iran. “[A strike] is not the end of the game. Then, we should follow it up with a viable, sustainable military operation to target the facilities [serving] the regime’s interests, and not allow the regime to rehabilitate itself.”

Bob Chapman
International Forecaster
The coming depression is going to be terrible. The US owes foreigners over $3 trillion, has over $10 trillion in short-term debt and over $100 trillion in long-term debt. We need $3 billion a day from foreigners just to stay afloat. We cannot compete with foreign countries without re-erecting trade barriers on goods and services.

We talk about gold and silver being the only financial salvation of our age. It is and will continue to be because America and most of the countries are broke and there is no way they can recover. They are buried in debt and will try desperately to bail themselves out via inflation, which they know will not work. Eventually the bottom will fall out and they know it. That is why they have to have another war, a major one. They desperately need another distraction. That creates the opportunity for profit, people control, a draft, population destruction, avoidance of revolution and the repudiation of debt due to this terrible war that, of course, our enemies started.

This allows as well for a further grab for power - the Nazification of our country. This will be accompanied by massive inflation, which as they say in the controlled media, that it’s already baked into the cake. Those in dollar denominated debt particularly in treasury and Agency debt will get clobbered. A triple AAA rating, which in this coming year will be lowered, is a trap for investors. Soon real interest rates will rise and that means lower bond prices. Growth will not be maintained and depression will eventually consume the world economy. More

Pakistan Daily
RAND Corporation Lobbies The Pentagon To Start New War To Save U.S. Economy
According to reports out of top Chinese mainstream news outlets, the RAND Corporation recently presented a shocking proposal to the Pentagon in which it lobbied for a war to be started with a major foreign power in an attempt to stimulate the American economy and prevent a recession. A fierce debate has now ensued in China about who that foreign power may be, with China itself as well as Russia and even Japan suspected to be the targets of aggression.

The reports cite French media news sources as having uncovered the proposal, in which RAND suggested that the $700 billion dollars that has been earmarked to bailout Wall Street and failing banks instead be used to finance a new war which would in turn re-invigorate the flagging stock markets. The RAND Corporation is a notoriously powerful NGO with deep ties to the U.S. military-industrial complex as well as interlocking connections with the Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie foundations.
“In remarks made over the weekend in Seattle, Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Biden warned that Barack Obama, if elected president, would be compelled to take deeply unpopular actions in both domestic and foreign policy within months of taking office. More

“…Biden forecast a major international crisis in the first six months of an Obama administration. He compared Obama to John F. Kennedy, the last senator to be elected president. ‘It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy,’ Biden said. “The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Watch. We’re going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.” –Patrick Martin

MOSCOW (Reuters)
A military solution to the standoff over Iran’s nuclear ambitions is unacceptable and there is no need at the moment for new sanctions, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday. But Medvedev said Russia continued to support a diplomatic drive led by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana to offer Tehran a package of incentives in return for it reining in some of its nuclear activities. Western states are anxious that a rift between Moscow and the West over Russia’s intervention in Georgia may shatter the fragile international coalition that has been applying pressure on Iran over its nuclear program. “We should not take any unilateral steps. It is not acceptable to opt for a military scenario. It would be dangerous,” Medvedev told the Valdai Club, a panel of journalists and academics who specialize in Russia. More

Stephen Lendman
Prior to entering WW II, US strategists had a clear aim in mind at its conclusion - to hold unchallengeable power in a new post-war global system: military, economic and political in a “Grand Area” encompassing the West and Far East. Essentially most parts outside the communist bloc and exploiting it under disarming rhetoric like being “selfless advocates of freedom for colonial peoples (and an) enemy of imperialism.” Championing “world peace (also) through multinational control.”

Today, the facade is gone, and no pretense remains about much “grander” plans - over an “Area” comprising planet earth with “full spectrum dominance” over all land, surface and sub-surface sea, air, space, electromagnetic spectrum and information systems with enough overwhelming power to fight and win global wars against any potential challengers with all weapons in our arsenal, including nuclear and others of mass destruction.

One nation above others is an obstacle - Russia. It’s powerful and can’t be intimidated like most others. It’s also dominant where Washington wants control - the Eurasian vastness with its huge oil, gas and other resources. For years, American sought dominance over it. Saw an opening when the Soviet Union dissolved. And one way or other seeks to get it. Russia has other plans, so therein lies the root of the current conflict using Georgia as a US proxy to instigate it. More

Julie Hyland and Chris Marsden
A build-up of naval forces is underway in the Black Sea, involving both NATO and Russian ships. The provocative actions by the US-lead military coalition create the danger of a clash with potentially catastrophic consequences. Late last week, General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian military’s general staff, claimed that 10 NATO warships were in the Black Sea and that more were on the way. “In light of the build-up of NATO naval forces in the Black Sea, the [Russian] fleet has also taken on the task of monitoring their activities,” he said.

The ships include two US warships, ostensibly in the region to deliver humanitarian aid to Georgia. These have since been joined by a third. In addition, NATO admitted that four of its vessels are on a “pre-planned deployment” in the Black Sea, “conducting port visits with Romanian and Bulgarian forces”. The “long-planned routine” exercise Active Endeavor—which is said to involve training in anti-terrorist and anti-pirate manoeuvres—comprises one warship each from Spain, Germany and Poland. They were reportedly later joined by a US frigate for a three-week schedule of port visits and exercises.

While denying a build-up, a NATO spokesperson said that other NATO countries may have ships in the sea. “Obviously, there are other NATO-affiliated nations out doing things,” Lt. Col. Web Wright said. These reports confirm that at least six NATO vessels are in the Black Sea, meaning that Russian warnings that warships from the western alliance now outnumber their own fleet anchored off the western coast of Georgia are not as far off the mark as is claimed. Russia has charged the US with using aid as a cover for rearming Georgia. “Normally warships do not deliver aid and this is gunboat diplomacy, this does not make the situation more stable,” said Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.

The New York Times August 28 admitted the US was “pursuing a delicate policy of delivering humanitarian aid on military transport planes and ships, apparently to illustrate to the Russians that they do not fully control Georgia’s airspace or coastline.”More

Bill Van Auken
WSWS
After going through the formality of a roll call vote ending in the preordained nomination of Barack Obama as its presidential candidate, the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday turned to the question of “national security,” portraying itself as more competent than the Bush administration in defending the interests of US imperialism abroad, while making it clear that it is prepared to launch new and even bloodier wars than those carried out over the past eight years.

Among the most ominous notes sounded repeatedly from the podium in Denver was the prospect that the coming period will see growing confrontations between America and emerging global rivals, including Russia and China.

This found its sharpest expression in an attack on the Bush administration from the right over the conflict between Russia and Georgia. Coming as it did amid the ratcheting up of the conflict between Moscow and Washington, with Russian and US warships sailing towards confrontation in the Black Sea, the rhetoric was the equivalent of throwing gasoline onto a fire.

The evening’s proceedings, organized under the slogan of “Securing America’s Future,” underscored the drive to the right by the Obama campaign and the Democratic Party as a whole following the party’s primary contests, in which popular hostility to the Iraq war played a decisive role in swinging the nomination to Obama and sinking the candidacy of Senator Hillary Clinton.

Not only did the speeches make it abundantly clear that any differences on the Iraq war are of a purely tactical character, they also delivered a resounding message that an incoming Democratic administration will oversee an expansion of US military aggression. More

Source: Press TV
Russia’s ambassador to NATO has warned that any military interference in the Caucasus conflict will be considered as declaration of war. In an interview with the Russian newspaper Vremya Novostei, Dmitry Rogozin, warned that any NATO attack on the Moscow-backed regions would “mean a declaration of war on Russia.” This is while the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev held talks with the Chinese President Hu Jintao in Tajikistan ahead of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) which is taking place on Thursday.

Medvedev, “informed his Chinese colleague about the situation in South Ossetia and Abkhazia,” AFP reported. The two men also discussed regional and international issues. The SCO is an intergovernmental organization which was founded in 2001 by the leaders of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Iran holds an observer status in the SCO. This year’s summit will also be attended by the presidents of the above mentioned nations on August 28.

George Galloway talks to a caller about an impending attack on Iran.

Moscow News,№03 2008
Russia underlined its right to a “preventive” nuclear strike this week in what military analysts interpreted as a move to introduce more clarity into the nation’s defense doctrine. The statements, made by Chief of General Staff Yuri Baluyevsky on Saturday, were followed by naval exercises in the northern Atlantic that will feature over 40 aircraft of the Air Force. Though unrelated, the developments pointed to a Russia not so much on the offensive as a one that was eager to bring its defense doctrine in line with that of the Western world and make it more up to date with contemporary military demands. More

Thinkprogress.org
Speaking at the Campus Progress journalism conference earlier this month, Seymour Hersh — a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist for The New Yorker — revealed that Bush administration officials held a meeting recently in the Vice President’s office to discuss ways to provoke a war with Iran. In Hersh’s most recent article, he reports that this meeting occurred in the wake of the overblown incident in the Strait of Hormuz, when a U.S. carrier almost shot at a few small Iranian speedboats. The “meeting took place in the Vice-President’s office. ‘The subject was how to create a casus belli between Tehran and Washington,’” according to one of Hersh’s sources. More

TFEX 08-4 “Operation Brimstone” Flexes Allied Force Training

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS080715-21
Release Date: 7/15/2008 5:17:00 PM

From Commander, U.S. 2nd Fleet Public Affairs

NORFOLK (NNS) — More than 15,000 service members from four countries will participate in Joint Task Force Exercise (JTFEX) 08-4 “Operation Brimstone”, July 21-31 in North Carolina and off the eastern U.S. coast from Virginia to Florida.

JTFEX 08-4 serves as a ready-for-deployment certification event for the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group (TR CSG) and the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group (IWO ESG). The exercise will also serve as a Joint Task Force Capable Headquarters sustainment event. In addition, JTFEX 08-4 will offer preliminary accreditation for 2nd Fleet’s Maritime Headquarters with Maritime Operations Center (MHQ with MOC)). MHQ with MOC is a new approach to command and control for fleet commanders.

“This exercise is a tremendous opportunity to train; not only as the Navy and Marine Corps team, but with our joint and coalition partners as well,” said Commander, 2nd Fleet Vice Adm. Marty Chanik.

“JTFEX 08-4 will flex our warfighting capabilities from the operational level through expeditionary strike force and strike group operations with several of our coalition partners – France, Brazil and the United Kingdom.”

The exercise also marks the first time that forces from Navy Expeditionary Combat Command are participating in an East-Coast JTFEX. NECC forces operating in the littorals and riverine environment are supporting integrated operations.

“Navy Expeditionary Combat Command provides a self-contained adaptive force package with a command element tailored to support the full spectrum of operations from major combat operations to unconventional and irregular warfare,” said NECC commander Rear Adm. Mike Tillotson.

U.S. and coalition naval assets underway for the exercise include the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) with associated units including the British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal (RO 7), the Brazilian Navy frigate Greenhalgh (F-46) and the French submarine FS Amethyste (S 605). BNS Greenhalgh is the first Brazilian Navy ship to operate integrated in a U.S. strike group.

French Rafale fighter aircraft assigned to the 12th Squadron, and Hawkeye early warning aircraft assigned to the 4th Squadron will conduct carrier qualifications and cyclic flight operations with U.S. Carrier Air Wing 8 during Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group’s Joint Task Force Exercise. This marks the first integrated U.S. and French carrier qualifications and cyclic flight operations aboard a U.S. aircraft carrier. More

The Telegraph
In a Wall Street Journal editorial, the leading voice of Washington’s hawks warned that time is running out for efforts to stop the Islamic Republic’s covert nuclear research programme. “We will be blamed for the strike anyway, and certainly feel whatever negative consequences result, so there is compelling logic to make it as successful as possible,” Mr Bolton writes. “At a minimum, we should place no obstacles in Israel’s path, and facilitate its efforts where we can.” Mr Bolton said that further rounds of United Nations sanctions were no longer a realistic deterrent. “We have almost certainly lost the race between giving ’strong incentives’ for Iran to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons, and its scientific and technological efforts to do just that. Swift, sweeping, effectively enforced sanctions might have made a difference five years ago. No longer.” More

Israel’s defense minister has hinted at readiness to attack Iran, saying his country “proved in the past that it won’t hesitate to act when its vital security interests are at stake.” But Ehud Barak added “the reactions of (Israel’s) enemies need to be taken into consideration as well.” Tensions with Iran intensified after Tehran launched war games and long-range missile tests this week, warning Tel Aviv would be “set on fire” if Israel attacks Iran over its nuclear program. More

OPEC would not be able to replace Iran’s oil production if supplies were halted in case of a war with Israel or the US, the oil cartel’s chief said today. “I hope there will be no attack on Iran. I hope that problem will be solved peacefully,” the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ secretary general Abdalla Salem El-Badri told a news conference in Vienna. “But if something were to happen it is impossible to replace the production of Iran.” Iran is OPEC’s second-largest oil producer with an output of about four million barrels per day. More

Source: AFP News
Iran would launch attacks against Israel and the US navy in the Gulf as its first response against any American attack over its nuclear programme, an aide to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday, according to the Fars news agency.

WASHINGTON, (IPS) - New arguments by analysts close to Israeli thinking in favour of U.S. strikes against Iran cite evidence of Iranian military weakness in relation to the U.S. and Israel and even raise doubts that Iran is rushing to obtain such weapons at all. The new arguments contradict Israel’s official argument that it faces an “existential threat” from an Islamic extremist Iranian regime determined to get nuclear weapons. They suggest that Israel, which already has as many as 200 nuclear weapons, views Iran from the position of the dominant power in the region rather than as the weaker state in the relationship.

The existence of a sharp imbalance of power in favour of Israel and the United States is the main premise of a recent analysis by Patrick Clawson and Michael Eisenstadt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) suggesting that a U.S. attack on Iranian nuclear facilities is feasible. Chuck Freilich, a senior fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Centre on Science and International Affairs, has also urged war against Iran on such a power imbalance. All three have close ties to the Israeli government. WINEP has long promoted policies favoured by Israel, and its founding director, Martin Indyk, was previously research director of the leading pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Freilich is a former Israeli deputy national security adviser.

These analysts, all of whom are pushing for a U.S., rather than an Israeli attack, argue that Iran’s power to retaliate for a U.S. attack on its nuclear facilities is quite limited. Equally significant, they also emphasise that Iran is a rational actor that would have to count the high costs of retaliation. That conclusion stands in sharp contrast to the official Israeli line that Iran cannot be deterred because of its alleged apocalyptic Islamic viewpoint on war with Israel. More

…the Dow crashed through its eight-year support level at 11,750. There isn’t much below now to keep it from dropping all the way back down to the 7,500-range. What that will do to American investor psychology and worse, consumer confidence, and therefore spending, and therefore the economy, is only too apparent.

The gold-attack on Monday obviously didn’t take. Gold recovered the following day and powered up by $26 the very next day to close in NY at $911. On Friday, gold confirmed its breakout, which means there will be little holding it back - just like there is now very little that’s holding the Dow up. Unsurprisingly, the US war machinery is in full swing at this time. Troop and military asset movements into the Iranian theater are nearly complete, the Israelis have flown their practice-attack of 100-plus fighter jets over the Mediterranean, and Congress has again prostrated itself before its banking-guild rulers who want total government (and therefore banking) of all economic activity.

Congress did this by passing the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 to give retroactive immunity to telcoms spying for the government, and by proposing a resolution (the already infamous H. Con. Res. 362) by which Congress demands that Bush completely blockade Iran in order to force it to stop enriching uranium. This, naturally, is a perfect setup for unleashing the long-planned bombing campaign on Iran. Congressmen know that Iran will not accede to these international demands. End result: We will probably get another war because of all this, just like we got one back in 2002-03 when the Dow plunged into the chasm this recently broken support level has bridged for these past eight years (see chart above).

The problem is that this time, it is a bipartisan gang of US war mongers in our Congress who all appear hell-bent on forcing Bush to attack Iran with a preemptive strike, possibly even an unprovoked nuclear first strike - something that human history so far has not had to deal with. More

Postmodern Times is a series of short animated films presenting new ideas about global consciousness and techniques for social and ecological transformation. Our first episode, “Toward 2012″, introduces the project, explaining concepts from the best-selling book, “2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl” (Tarcher/Penguin, 2006) by Daniel Pinchbeck, in the author’s own voice.

Former CIA officer Ray McGovern says President Bush and his ally, Israel, will likely attack Iran in ‘late summer or early fall’. “A perfect storm seems to be gathering in late summer or early fall,” McGovern, who served as a Central Intelligence Agency officer under seven US presidents in a period of 27 years, wrote in an editorial published by Antiwar.com.

McGovern added that an agreement had been reached between the US and Israel ‘at the highest level’, claiming that ‘planners, plotters and pilots’ have begun work on the details of an aerial military attack against the oil-rich country. His remarks came shortly after Pentagon officials told The New York Times that Israel had carried out a large-scale military maneuver in early June which appeared to be a rehearsal for ‘a potential bombing attack on Iran’s nuclear sites’. McGovern also claimed that the main reason an attack has not yet been launched on Iran is the opposition of senior military officers, the numbers of whom are currently dropping due to White House efforts. More

“I think people are becoming more aware of these guns or butter questions,” said Gary Gillespie, “But when you talk about $720 million a day, even people who work on this issue are shocked by the number and shocked by what could have been done with that money.”

Willard Payne
Israel has continued to make preparations to confront the growing threat from Tehran by forming an Iran Command within the Israel Air Force (IAF). Debka reported last month [that] recently retired chief of the IAF; Brigadier General Eliezer Shkedy stated Israel should take action against Iran even if it means acting alone.

Though I will be personally surprised if the IAF will have to time with the major threats on Israel’s border with Hamas-Hezbollah-Lebanon-Syria, the IAF may be able to conduct a few missions even though Iran’s most important installations are underground and nuclear bomb proof. A few raids could really boost public morale and some important bases above ground could still be hit, missile and air bases. More

Scott Ritter discusses the US planned attack on Iran. “The Bush Administration has built a new generation of nuclear weapons that we call “usable nukes”, and they have a nuclear posture now which permits the preemptive use of nuclear weapons in a non-nuclear environment if the Commander in Chief deems US forces to be at significant risk.

If we start bombing Iran the Iranians will respond and we will feel the pain instantaneously which will prompt the Bush Administration to move to phase two, which will have to be boots on the ground. And we will put boots on the ground…in an effort to push the regime over, and when they don’t push over, we now have 40,000 troops trapped.

We have now reached the definition of significant numbers of troops in harms way, and there’s no reserve to pull them out. We [may] use nuclear weapons to brake the backbone of Iranian resistance and it may not work, but what it will do is this: it will unleash the nuclear genie, and so for all those Americans out there that say taking on Iran is a good thing…if we take on Iran we’re going to use nuclear weapons, and if we use nuclear weapons the genie ain’t going back in the bottle until an American city is taken out by an Islamic weapon in retaliation, so…pick your city!”

The senate report is out and the proof is there. The Bush Administration LIED the USA into war in Iraq. McCain went right along with them.

Asia Times
Julian Delasantellis
…I present before the bar of humanity this item I recently came across on the Internet, a report authored by respected military analyst Anthony H Cordesman of the US Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think-tank, entitled “Iran, Israel and Nuclear War” [1].

The 77-page report is formatted in the US Pentagon’s current dominant lingua franca, the ubiquitous Microsoft Powerpoint…The first and core scenario of the report involves a nuclear exchange between Israel and Iran, some time between 2010 and 2020. It is speculated that during this period, the Iranians would have about 50, mostly minimum-yield, nuclear weapons at their disposal.

Thirty would be in the form of missile warheads to be emplaced on their Shahab 3 and 4 intermediate range ballistic missiles, 20 in the form of bombs that would be carried on the now antique F-14 Tomcats bought from the US by the Shah of Iran in the 1970s, along with a few on the old Russian SU-24s, and the more modern SU-37s, that Iran has recently purchased during shopping trips to the world’s global arms swap meet. More

Silently, stealthily, unseen by cameras, the war on Iran has already begun. Many sources confirm that the United States, bent on destabilizing the Islamic Republic, has increased its aid to armed movements among the Azeri, Baluchi, Arab and Kurdish ethnic minorities that make up about 40% of the Iranian population. ABC News reported in April that the US had secretly assisted the Baluchi group Jund al-Islam (Soldiers of Islam), responsible for a recent attack in which some 20 members of the Revolutionary Guard were killed. According to an American Foundation report (1), US commandos have operated inside Iran since 2004. More

Michelle Carlile-Alkhouri reports
A new report says some governments, rebels and armed groups are resisting pressure to stop using child soldiers in conflicts. The report is by The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. The group says firm figures are impossible to produce but it is clear that there are tens of thousands of child soldiers. Most governments accused of using children deny the charge.

Bill Van Auken
WSWS
An Israeli press report that US President George W. Bush intends to launch a military attack on Iran before he leaves office at the beginning of next year prompted a heated denial from the White House Tuesday.

The article, which appeared in Tuesday’s Jerusalem Post, cited a report on Israeli Army Radio, quoting Israeli officials who had met with Bush and his delegation during their visit to Israel last week.

“A senior member of the president’s entourage said during a closed meeting that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were of the opinion that military action was called for,” the article quoted an Israel official as saying.

The report cited the US official as stating that “the hesitancy of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice” had delayed a decision on military action against Iran. Read more

Published: Sunday, 11 May, 2008 @ 5:41 PM in Beirut (GMT+2)
Machinegun fire and heavy artillery echoed throughout the village of Aitat, 20 kilometers southeast of Beirut. Mortars were fired between opposition and government supporters across Aley hills.

Sunday’s fighting between pro-government supporters of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and Shiite gunmen started in Aitat around 2 p.m., involving exchanges of rocket and machine gunfire. There also were sporadic gunbattles in the eastern Bekaa Valley. Read more

A political satire set in Turaqistan, a country occupied by an American private corporation run by a former US Vice-President Aykroyd/Cheney. In an effort to monopolize the opportunities the war-torn nation offers, the corporation’s CEO hires a troubled hit man (Cusack), to kill a Middle East oil minister.

Now, struggling with his own growing demons, the assassin must pose as the corporation’s Trade Show Producer in order to pull off this latest hit, while maintaining his cover by organizing the high-profile wedding of Yonica Babyyeah (Duff) an outrageous Middle Eastern pop star, and keeping a sexy left wing reporter (Tomei) in check. Written by fmmini

Global Research
An investigation by Ralph Forbes from American Free press reported on May 05, 2008 that more than a quarter of US senators and congressmen have invested at least $196 million of their own money in companies doing business with the Department of Defense (DoD) that profit from the death and destruction in Iraq.

The report also edifies that 151 members of congress invested close to a quarter-billion dollars in companies that received defense contracts of at least $5 million in 2006. These companies got more than 275.6 billion from the government in 2006, or $755 million per day, according to Fedspending.org.

In 2004, the first full year after the current Iraq war began, Republican and Democratic lawmakers-both hawks and doves invested between $74.9 million and 161.3 million in companies under contract with the DoD [1]. No wonder the Democratic congress kept approving the enormous spending bills on the war, since a significant portion of it happens to end up in their deep pockets. Read more