Why Is MSNBC/GE Suddenly Pushing for US Withdrawl From Iraq?

[McCamy Taylor]

Olberman has been turned loose to report on the Downing Street Memos are often and as loudly as he wants. Experts regularly speculate that the US lead invasion of Iraq is the reason for events such as the recent bombing in London. We are told that nothing short of a reduction of the US militarty presence in Iraq can make us safer at home.

Can this be the same news network that lead the charge to war just two short years ago?

I can think of two reasons why GE might want us to get out of Iraq. One is purely mercenary. Oil prices are entirely too high, which must hurt the manufacturing sector, to which GE belongs. Also, GE farms a lot of work out to other countries, so transportation costs must be eating them alive. It is possible that a peaceful Iraq and Mid East might bring down the price of oil.

However, I think that the real reason for GE's defection from the * camp lies in its close ties to the Pentagon. Check out the latest Downing Street Memo. According to this document, the Pentagon wants to withdrawn most of its forces from Iraq by next year, but the * administration does not.

If you were GE/MSNBC, would you support *, who has three more years ain office or the Pentagon which is your bread and butter forever?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=355291&in_page_id=1770

"The memo leaves little doubt that the British plan to take their lead from the White House, where an increasingly unpopular Mr Bush is under huge pressure from the US public to bring American troops home fast.

"The paper says it "sets out what we know of US planning and possible expectations on the UK contribution, and the impact on UK decision making".

"It says Mr Bush's allies in the Pentagon and Centcom, or Central Command, are at odds with Army chiefs in Iraq, who fear it is too soon to withdraw in such large numbers.

"The document states: "There is a strong US military desire for significant force reductions.

"'Emerging US plans assume 14 out of 18 provinces could be handed over to Iraqi control by early 2006, allowing a reduction in from 176,000 down to 66,000. There is, however, a debate between the Pentagon/Centcom, who favour a relatively bold reduction in force numbers, and the multinational force in Iraq, whose approach is more cautious.'"

[tabasco]

1. Whatever the specifics it certainly boils down to $$$$$$$$$$$$$

Maybe GE was profiteering better in a peacetime environment with scams like missile defense.

[blm]

2. MSNBC is fearful of losing ALL credibility when more wake up and realize

how they and others helped PUSH Bush and his war.

They are trying to show they have a healthy news network.....just temporary cosmetic surgery for them when they are actually fatally steeped in BushInc. propaganda.

[McCamy Taylor]

3. Thats why the journalists like Olberman are trashing the war.

But GE could care less about journalistic integrity. It is letting its journalists act like journalists, and the journalists are loving it.

[HereSince1628]

4. They are doing the ground work for the administration

preparing the populace to accept a decision already made.

[sendero]

6. Then...

... why isn't FAUX doing the same thing?

[HereSince1628]

9. Look, this is a double double damn secret don't go too far with this

I am thinking the viewers at MSNBC will accept this more than the viewers at Fox. A sharp turn on Fox would be to obvious.

[sendero]

10. LOL...

... well seeing as how the number of FOX viewers has dropped 58% since last November, I'm not so sure :)

[GalleryGod]

5. Their Coffers Are Full

:yoiks: :patriot: time to skeee-dattle

[peacetalksforall]

7. I like your post because you delve into the inside of GE and how they

may be affected by the war even though they also profit by the war. There is also the possibility that they want to move forward on big ticket items like space and the focus isn't there nor the money because of the billions stolen by Iraq democracy pnac related supporters and designees, plus the unplanned funding fiasco.

I would like to know who at the Pentagon they might be listening to because it ain't Rumsfeld. The WH is Rumsfeld.

In any case, GE and NBC interests lie with the right wing so any thing they do will be subtle. They are permanently right wing. I have NO HOPE for them at all. Olberman is an aberration. He is their controlled representative after Donahue to try to make people believe they have balance.

This is not to disparage Olberman, the person. He is a genious of wit if he is the person writing his stuff.

[mirandapriestly]

11. Old article may be relevant

this is a few years old, but it does say that the high oil costs lower their earnings AND later it says the broadcast cost of war in Iraq is high! Never thought of that one.

http://money.cnn.com/2003/04/10/news/companies/ge_walkup/
GE 1Q profits likely fell

Conglomerate is expected to have earned 32 cents a share on $32.2B in revenue.
April 10, 2003: 6:01 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - First-quarter earnings per share at General Electric, the No. 1 company by market value, probably fell about 9 percent, as the conglomerate's plastics and power systems business suffered from rising oil prices and the country's march to war.

..snip..

[McCamy Taylor]

12. Thanks. I assumed that high oil prices would hurt GE. This comfirms it.

[TheWebHead]

8. without a war in Iraq

they can devote more time to the ratings grabbing white women in peril...

http://whitewomeninperil.com/

not to mention the primary cash outlay isn't to sophisticated weapons systems in Iraq, it's for soldiers and lower-tech equipment.

[Disturbed]

13. GE and the Multi-Corps have allegiance to...

themselves and their stockholders. Multi-Corps and MIC follow the course that is profitable for themselves, period. Iraq is a losing gambit now so they are ready to move on. The Bush Regime are losers and the Multi-Corps know it.

[McCamy Taylor]

14. My crystal ball predicted this back in 2001. Just kidding.

I dont have a crystal ball. But I do know that * ran a series of companies into the ground, so I figured he wouldnt do any better with the country and that in the end all the Big Business people who supported him would turn on him. The stock market predicted the same thing, that was the reason for what Greenspan so sweetly dubbed the "Retrenchment" of 2001.

Looks like the so called Free Market Economy is gonna bite * on the Ass. I wonder if the Secret Service is prepared to wrestle the Free Market Economy to the ground.