Back in April, President Obama announced sanctions on a handful of rich Russian men and corporations so as to “change the calculus” of the Russian president with respect to his engagement with the unrest in Ukraine. Some of us remember the days when the US president would just call in the Russian ambassador and ask “What the hell is your boss thinking?” And the Russian president, in turn, would call in the US ambassador and say “We have the right to protect our Russian speakers, and you should remind your president that we still have nukes.” And in the traditional fashion, the two head boys with their number two’s could continue pissing on fence posts until the boundaries were established.

It seems that those days have gone the way of representative democracy in this age of oligarchs. It is now considered the best foreign-policy strategy to go after the rich cronies of the targeted foreign head of state hoping that these powerbrokers will pressure their “leader” to do our bidding. (Extortion?)

Oligarchy means rule by the few and plutocracy means rule by the rich. It is safe to say that the few can’t possibly rule if they’re not rich. On the other hand, a person could be a member of a small group of extremely wealthy people with no desire to rule, so we should be specific, maybe even have a name for small groups of rich people/corporations that want to rule. (Okay, okay, let’s make that a name you can say on radio and TV.) Corruptingcoin has a suggestion: Olijerks.

Ol.i.jerk    O lee jerk

n.

A member of a small group of rich jerks that wield undue influence over a government, its departments, divisions, and/or agencies.

Olijerks and Mercenaries

Not all Olijerks hire mercenaries to facilitate their desire to rule, but it is clear that all mercenaries are employed by Olijerks. An American example of an Olijerks’ army is Blackwater — it has changed its name several times recently, but it’s still the same animal — a paramilitary, well-trained, well-armed, well-funded and thanks to its Olijerk patrons, well connected to the US government.

Back to Russia, Putin, and Ukraine

President Putin has repeatedly insisted that there are no Russian troops in Ukraine. That could be true. — We haven’t announced sanctions on the Russian army or the Russian government — it could be that Eastern Ukraine is being invaded by a Russian Blackwater. The idea that Olijerks from major world powers would field teams of mercenaries is just the tip of the iceberg. Get out a map, and put your hand down covering everything from Ukraine to Iraq —resist the temptation to press really hard — and in the area you’ve covered, there are a multitude of private contractors that, when combined, have greater resources than the national armies of their respective countries. We are not talking about a handful of mercenary teams engaging in a local fight, we are talking March Madness, everybody fighting to get into the final four. These teams do not exist in a vacuum.  No Olijerks = No Blackwaters.

Why would there be so many private armies? Simple answer: Olijerks – rich people who want to rule. Money and power. Who profits from war? The list is long and distinguished, but it’s safe to say not one of them is poor.

War is profitable. If an Olijerk can provide products or services that are needed to conduct a war, meet the needs of a war zone, and/or promote the next “must-have” conflict, He is going to make a lot of money. (He probably won’t buy blankets for the poor with the profits.) The Olijerk thing to do, to stay ahead of his competitors, is to canvas the world looking for potential wars (read markets). Places where a profitable war can be encouraged. “Hey Mr. Hatfield, I hear that the McCoy boy is buying some pitchforks with your name on them.” As long as war is profitable, the Olijerks that profit from war will promote war. It’s not personal it’s just business.

Religious extremism is frequently blamed for modern armed conflicts. Tell me if you’ve heard this one. Okay so two opposing religious extremists walk into a bar, or better yet how many cruise missiles do you need to make a bar fight into a jihad? (For the business majors, the right answer is as many as you have that are near or past their “best used by date.”) Yes people fight. We fight about everything including religion, but to make war it takes organization, planning, command-and-control, and funding. It takes money that wants to rule.  Nation states and/or Olijerks.

ISIS is an Arabic expression that means “jihad my ass, show me the money!” They kill everybody that disagrees with them, not from a religious conviction, but simply to make it easier to control the population. And like their Colombian drug cartel counterparts they cut off heads to intimidate. We know they can’t exist without Olijerks, so who do you suspect? Who profits? Time for some pencil and paper detective work.

Make a list of all the people/corporations that profit from current armed conflicts — for simplicity start with the Ukraine – Iraq section of the map that you covered with your hand (you did do that didn’t you?) Once you have a pretty good list going, separate those entities that profit from what’s happening in Ukraine, from those whose profits come from the action in Iraq, and again those that profit from the conflict in Syria etc. Score each Olijerk by the number of times they appear on different lists, crosscheck the list of names of people with the list of corporations — there will likely be overlap – then take the top scorers and dig deeper (Corporations that own or partner with other corporations and their top people etc.) . Beware of any references that suggest a nation state is a supplier or provider, there is almost always an Olijerk hiding under the state’s skirts.

Now just like the TV detectives, put all of your suspects on a whiteboard write “Promoters of War” at the top and draw in the connections — and/or buy a glue stick and a deck of cards.

Sanctions of the Russians? Bombs on the Islamists?  Weapons and training for the moderate anti-al-Assad’s forces? We might consider changing our Calculus.

© Stephen Lance and corruptingcoin.org, 2014