Thus spake actor John Cusack: 

Maybe George Bush does think God talks to him, but I don’t know what version of Jesus Christ he could pray to that could endorse war as a choice. To me, growing up Catholic, that’s obscene. But you think, “Why would they do that? It’s so shocking that the administration views the whole idea of government and war itself as a for-profit business.”

It’s shocking that someone could reach adulthood (Cusack) and still possess such a bigoted and juvenile world view, and get a chance to share it with the world.

“Everything is outsourced; everything is for profit,” the 42-year-old actor-writer-director said recently in an interview at his Venice production office. “I don’t think people really understand that. Corporations have privatized the war to the point where the war itself is the cost-plus business. They are hollowing out the very core function of what it means to be a government. They’re using the State Department as an ATM.”

Apparently Cusack thinks the military must do everything for itself, lest it buy something from the private sector, which then earns a profit. For years, our military had soldiers working in kitchens — KP or kitchen patrol — was the name for the dreaded duty. (Check out Beetle Bailey.)

Then it got smart and decided it was more economical to outsource such labor — why waste soldiers’ time for that?

“What we have here is a protectionist racket for the government’s favorite corporations to make money off the war,” said Cusack, who relied heavily on the writings of journalist Naomi Klein, author of “Baghdad Year Zero,” in making the movie. “Where are companies like Blackwater held to any conceivable check and balance that I learned in civics class?”

Checks and balances pertain to the three branches of government, not government contractors. Cusack needs to brush up on that civics class.

Cusack probably means Halliburton as a “favorite corporation.” Halliburton provided similar services to the military in the Balkans under Bill Clinton.