Well, Well, Well, it is NOT only David Brooks ( yesterdays post) who believes that
Democracy is equal to Capatalism! (SEC’Y RUMSFELD & William Saffire think it also! )
I do here by swear to document this connection, where ever it is found!
I also promise to go back a reread the book: The incorporation of America!
believes
Meet the Press 04/13/03
http://www.msnbc.com/news/899716.asp
MR. RUSSERT: What happens if Syria doesn’t change their behavior?
SEC’Y RUMSFELD: Oh, that’s above my pay grade. Those are the kinds of things that countries and presidents decide. That’s broad national policy. I’m a participant, but I’m certainly not a decider.
MR. RUSSERT: But could they be risking the future of their government?
SEC’Y RUMSFELD: Well, I guess to a certain extent you’re known by your friends. And being on the terrorist list is not some place I’d want to be if I were a country or a leader of a country. I don’t quite understand a country that foregoes the economic opportunity that comes from interaction with the world community and the opportunities for their people by creating an environment that’s hospitable to enterprise and to economic intercourse. Why they want to live like that. Why they want to think that the only way to sustain their dictatorships is to repress people and to deny them the fruits of economic interaction with the world. I think it’s a shame. I don’t know what motivates people except preservation of a regime. I mean, you look at dictatorships and basically, they get up in the morning and the single most important thing is not looking out for their people, it’s how do we preserve the regime. How do we continue our ability to control everything and repress everyone and control the press and deny freedom of religion and enlarge our prisons and force people, in the case of other countries, to live on subsistence food. I don’t get it."
The Best Defense By WILLIAM SAFIRE
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/14/opinion/14SAFI.html
"If we steadily introduce free enterprise and the rule of law into a loose confederation; if we expect little gratitude from Iraqis exercising the freedom to complain loudly and a lot of carping from "the little three" in Paris, Berlin and Moscow — then Americans could possibly achieve what seems as far-fetched as defeating fascism in the 40's and Communism in the 90's. We could give liberty a chance to take root in the land of Job. Then our children may be able to lay down the burden of a great offense because there will be less need for a best defense. "
Ultimate Insiders By BOB HERBERT
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/14/opinion/14HERB.html
"In December 1983 Donald Rumsfeld was sent to the Middle East as a special envoy in an effort to jump-start the peace process in Lebanon and advance a presidential initiative for peace between Arabs and Israelis."
"The primary goal of Mr. Rumsfeld's visit to Baghdad was to improve relations with Iraq. But another matter was also quietly discussed. The powerful Bechtel Group in San Francisco, of which Secretary Shultz had been president before joining the Reagan administration, wanted to build an oil pipeline from Iraq to the Jordanian port of Aqaba, near the Red Sea. It was a billion-dollar project and the U.S. government wanted Saddam to sign off on it."
It was known by the fall of 1983 that Iraq had used chemical weapons against Iran. That did not prevent the U.S. from pursuing improved relations with Saddam, or curb the enthusiasm for the Aqaba pipeline — a project promoted by a company that had given the Reagan administration not just its secretary of state, but also its secretary of defense, Caspar Weinberger, who had been Bechtel's general counsel.
Now, 20 years later, Mr. Shultz (who is currently on the board of Bechtel) and Mr. Rumsfeld are among the fiercest of the war hawks. They wanted war with Iraq and they got it.
This unilateral war and the ouster of Saddam have given the hawks and their commercial allies carte blanche in Iraq. And the company with perhaps the sleekest and most effective of all the inside tracks, a company that is fairly panting with anticipation over oil and reconstruction contracts worth scores of billions of dollars, is of course the Bechtel Group of San Francisco.
6:52:58 AM 
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