Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice President Cheney, has won contracts worth more than $1.7 billion under Operation Iraqi Freedom and stands to make hundreds of millions more dollars under a no-bid contract awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to newly available documents.
The size and scope of the government contracts awarded to Halliburton in connection with the war in Iraq are significantly greater than was previously disclosed and demonstrate the U.S. military's increasing reliance on for-profit corporations to run its logistical operations. Independent experts estimate that as much as one-third of the monthly $3.9 billion cost of keeping U.S. troops in Iraq is going to independent contractors.
"won" is kind of the wrong word in that first sentence. after all, there were no competitive bids. if there is no contest, no one can "win." considering that dick cheney continues to draw a six-figure annual salary from halliburton even while he serves in as vice president, a better verb would be "bought."
the administration's giveaway to halliburton and its subsidiaries is not only corrupt, its incredibly wasteful and possibly contributes to some of the other problems american troops face in iraq. as riverbend pointed out in today's post, a lot of the work being done by american companies in iraq can be done a lot cheaper if they used iraqis companies. in riverbend's example, an unnamed iraqi company and an unnamed american company each gave an estimate for repairing a bridge in baghdad. the american company's estimate was more than 166 times greater than the iraqi company's ($50,000,000 vs. $300,000), but the americans, not the iraqis got the contract.
some doubt the veracity of what riverbend writes (on some blogs i have seen people question whether she is really an iraqi as she claims). but even if you don't believe her, it seems pretty clear to me that a big factor in both the violence and anti-american sentiment is the huge unemployment rate in this "post-war" period. iraq has long been known in the arab world for its highly educated professional class. there are people there who can do these jobs. to give them the work would be an effective way to help raise ordinate iraqis out of poverty, make them feel like they had a stake in the future of iraq, and generally undermine the widespread suspicion that the whole iraqi invasion is just a scheme to enrich americans at iraq's expense.
although we have no idea who is responsible for the continuing attacks on american soldiers (there is really no evidence that they're all "baathists" as some claim) i suspect that all three of these factors--poverty, the lack of a feeling of ownership, and suspicion about american's intentions--each contribute to the violence.
you would think using iraqi companies to rebuild iraq would appeal to the neo-cons' ethic of improving one's own society through work rather than handouts. perhaps it would; if they weren't so addicted to paying off their corporate sponsors.
