[GrizzAdams]

The reality of the matter is, that this is not the noble and just nation that most of us think it is. I grew up like most people, thinking that after thousands of years of senseless wars, corrupt governments and politics that we finally got this government right, by bringing Democracy to us. Though this nation claims to be Democratic, and even has it written on paper, the more appropiate name would be Corporate Rule. Since the fewer big corporations, (particularly the energy, defense and investment groups or bank corporations,) have done a fine job of carving this world up amongst themselves, and it is also no secret that a lot of our political leaders infact come from or have family ties with these big corporations. How about the $2 million that was donated to the Bush election campaign from Enron. Or how about George W. Bush's father and life-long friend, James Baker being on the executive board of the Carlyle group, which is a massive private equity firm and defense contractor. The list goes on. If it does not take a genius to understand that corporate buisiness motivation is all about money, then it should also not take a genius to understand that politics is all about money as well.
Many public officials have described Enron's demise as the product of corporate misbehavior. This perspective ignores a vital fact: Enron would not have scaled such grand global heights, nor fallen so dramatically, without its close financial relationships with government agencies. Since 1992, at least 21 agencies, representing the U.S. government, multilateral development banks, and other national governments, helped leverage Enron's global reach by approving $7.219 billion in tax dollars toward 38 projects in 29 countries. For example:

* In the Dominican Republic, eight people were killed when police were brought in to quell riots after blackouts lasting up to 20 hours followed a power price hike that Enron and other private firms initiated. The local population was further enraged by allegations that a local affiliate of Arthur Andersen had undervalued the newly privatized utility by almost $1 billion, reaping enormous profits for Enron.
* In India, police hired by the power consortium of which Enron was a part beat non-violent protesters who challenged the $30 billion agreement-the largest deal in Indian history-struck between local politicians and Enron.
* The president of Guatemala tried to dissolve the Congress and declare martial law after rioting ensued, following a price hike that the government deemed necessary after selling the power sector to Enron.
* In Panama, the man who negotiated the asking price for Enron's stake in power production was the brother-in-law of the head of the country's state-owned power company. Rioting followed suspicions of corruption and Enron's price hikes and power outages there, too.
* In Colombia, two politicians resigned amid accusations that one was trying to push a cut-rate deal for Enron on the state-owned power company.

Enron is just one of many examples of how corporations and politics conduct "normal" buisiness around the world, and Americans wonder why most of the world dislikes US foreign policies.
Previous presidents have warned against this very same status of governement, in particular, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower was very upfront about the possibility of creating a "Miltary-Industrial Complex," and what he meant by this was, by creating a busisness built around miliatry and defense, and that it becomes so large and so powerful, that it is actually able to influence the politics of war.