War profiteering at heart of meeting

Corporations that profit from the war economy -- Lockheed-Martin (weapons), Halliburton and Bechtel (infrastructure) and Blackwater (security) -- contribute millions of dollars to politicians and use lobbyists to assure lucrative government contracts, then promote militarism and war.

Blackwater is a corporate army with the largest, most sophisticated private military center on the planet. The U.S. pays Blackwater's civilian soldiers from $500 to $1,500 a day to provide security in Iraq. Although investigated for the killing of innocent Iraqi civilians, they operate with little oversight and with immunity from prosecution. The State Department pays private security contractors nearly $4 billion a year.

War profiteering relates to Eisenhower's warning about the rise of the military-industrial complex and misplaced power.

Learn more and help dismantle the war economy by attending "War Profiteering and Blackwater: The Rise of Corporate Armies" at 7 p.m. Tuesday at McHenry County College in Crystal Lake. The speaker will be Simon Harak: Jesuit, former director of the War Resisters League and current director of Marquette University's Center for Peacemaking.

The program is sponsored by the McHenry County Peace Group and McHenry County Pax Christi. Call (815) 455-3683.

Libby Pappalardo

Crystal Lake