Iraq For Sale
Last night I saw a free screening of Iraq For Sale, which exposes how Halliburton, Titan, CACI, and Blackwater are profiteering off the war, ripping off us taxpayers, fucking over our troops in every way possible, and sending their own employees to certain death, all in the name of profit.
This last point is not meant as hyperbole or a general “Iraq is dangerous” statement. I mean Halliburton deliberately sent their employees into harm’s way in the expectation that they will be killed, because of the “cost plus” nature of the contracts, “under which the company purchases all goods and services to complete the job (warning, PDF), and is then reimbursed by the government for all costs plus a percentage of costs as a fee. Such contracts contain a built-in incentive to waste money: the higher the cost runs, the higher the profit will be. So while taxpayers want to keep costs down, “cost-plus” contractors want to run costs up.”
Which means that when a truck gets as much as a flat tire, the truck is literally set on fire and scrapped, so the company can get a new truck and a new contract. And in one case thoroughly detailed, Halliburton deliberately sent its fuel drivers out on Good Friday 2004, on roads that the military had warned Halliburton were off limits to civilians because of the increased risk of attacks on Good Friday in particular, in trucks that were deliberately painted in camoflage to look like military trucks, in the (correct) expectation that the contracters would be attacked, killed, requiring replacement and a new contract. Deliberately profiting from the deaths of their own employees.
What made me angriest was the story about the water. Halliburton and KBR had contracts to provide fresh water for our troops, for showering, drinking, cooking, and washing. One soldier complained to a contracter that something was squiggling in the toilet water. When the contracter checked the water supplies, he discovered not only was there was no chlorine in the water at all, but that the water was contaminated with malaria, giardia, and all sorts of bacteria, viruses, and pathogens. In tears as he told his story, the guy spoke of Marines bathing in this stuff, drinking it, going home filled with diseases that they won’t even know to be tested for.
I have friends in the military. My friend Geoff is a dobro player, and currently in the Ready Reserve for the Air Force. My friend Adam is an honorably discharged Marine. The thought that these two fundamentally decent people, people who chose to serve the country and who don’t make shit compared to what the contracters make, get stiffed on something as basic as clean, potable water, makes my blood boil.
When I left the theatre, a guy from the St. Joseph’s University student newspaper asked me how the film made me feel. I told him I was angry enough to spit nails, and that the only thing Timothy McVeigh did wrong was that he drove his truck into the wrong building: it should have gone right into Halliburton or any of it’s corporate colleagues.
Perhaps that’s hyperbole on my part, but not by much. Not by much. Go see the movie.
2 Responses to “Iraq For Sale”
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September 20th, 2006 at 5:20 pm
[...] So I was at the premiere tonight with the usual Drinking Liberally suspects, and boy, it was hard to watch - even for people who already knew most of the stuff in the movie. When you see it all together like that, you feel like getting a rope and going after these bastards. (By the way, director Robert Greenwald was on Keith Olbermann tonight - you can still catch the rerun.) [...]
September 20th, 2006 at 5:52 pm
iraq for sale: the review
what do i do about robert greenwald? i like him, i really do. i agree with his politics and admire him for taking on the likes of rupert murdoch and wal-mart. i just don’t think he’s a very good documentary filmmaker.
i liked outfoxed, but larg …..