Happy New Year, 1806

This just in from the Chicago Tribune (and if you want to read it there, you'll have to fill out the free registration form):

A proposal prohibiting defense contractor involvement in human trafficking for forced prostitution and labor was drafted by the Pentagon last summer, but five defense lobbying groups oppose key provisions and a final policy still appears to be months away, according to those involved and Defense Department records.

The lobbying groups opposing the plan say they’re in favor of the idea in principle, but said they believe that implementing key portions of it overseas is unrealistic. They represent thousands of firms, including some of the industry’s biggest names, such as DynCorp International and Halliburton subsidiary KBR (Kellog, Brown, and Root), both of which have been linked to trafficking-related concerns.

(The emphasis is mine, not the Trib's.)

Of course, that polite, inoffensive, and semi-opaque phrase, "linked to trafficking-related concerns," means (in plain English) "practicing slavery." That's how I would have written it, but then, I don't have the Trib's way with words.

What a great way to start the new year. 2005 Saw revelations that our government is engaging in kidnapping (which they are pleased to call "rendition"), torture (enhanced interrogation technqiques), and domestic surveillance (you have nothing to fear if you're innocent).

Now, in the government's defense, we need to point out that it's not the government engaging in forced labor and forced prostitution here. All the government has done is fail to formulate a policy which would prohibit these practices by our corporate masters -- and theirs.

So here's my first resolution for the New Year: I resolve to spend less time bad-mouthing George W. Bush, who is after all just an appointee. The real criminals are Exxon-Mobil, Halliburton, Coca-Cola, Bank of America, &c.

Bush is, in the words of Colonel Kurtz in Coppola's Apocalypse Now, "an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill."

And don't look for help to Democrats like John Kerry and Hillary Clinton. They're just slightly wimpier, more liberal employees of the same firm.