Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia (Jan. 3, 2005) – Lt. Mark Banks, of Savannah, Ga., tends to a patient who was medically evacuated by U.S. Navy helicopter to a temporary triage site in Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia.
Who runs your country?
The USA has a military-industrial complex which accounts for about 50% of the world's total arms expenditure.
The generals in the USA are very important.
Military expenditure 2007 (forums.narutofan.com/showthread.php?t=568251)
According to F. William Engdahl, "The US military is in Afghanistan for two reasons.
"First to restore and control the world’s largest supply of opium for the world heroin markets and to use the drugs as a geopolitical weapon against opponents, especially Russia.
"That control of the Afghan drug market is essential for the liquidity of the bankrupt and corrupt Wall Street financial mafia." (The geopolitics behind the phoney US war in Afghanistan [Voltaire])
PADANG, Indonesia (Oct. 11, 2009) Rear Adm. Richard Landolt, commander, Amphibious Force U.S. 7th Fleet, shows his Blackberry to children from Hula Banda village while delivering ShelterBoxes to earthquake victims in remote villages.
The generals are important elsewhere.
In Indonesia, it is the American trained generals who pull the strings.
The Indonesian generals run lots of businesses, including golf courses, luxury hotels, building firms and fish sellers.
And, allegedly, they run businesses involving extortion, drugs and weapons.
On 12 January 2010, Human Rights Watch had an article entitled "Indonesia: Military Business Reforms ‘Totally Inadequate’"
According to Human Rights Watch, the Indonesian government's new regulations on military businesses 'fail to dismantle the armed forces' damaging and dangerous business empire.'
These businesses 'have long been implicated in human rights abuses, crime and corruption.'
Human Rights Watch reports that the Indonesian government's plans for reform, isssued in October 2009, do not satisfy the requirement in a 2004 law that the government fully divest the armed forces of its business interests.
According to Lisa Misol, senior business and human rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, "The law says the government needs to get the military out of these businesses, but instead they will be allowed to remain in military hands. Promising to monitor them more closely simply isn't good enough."
Human Rights Watch, in a 2006 report, sated that "the military's businesses ventures have been a platform for extortion, violence, property seizures, and other crimes against civilians."
Official data from 2007 show that the military businesses had gross assets of Rp3.2 trillion (US$350 million) and earned a profit of Rp268 billion ($28.5 million) that year.
Study says Indonesian military complicit in illegal logging
Indonesia's army 'retains business empire'
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