Halliburton, KBR, Cheney, Iraq, Blackwater, Bush - what? I don’t get it.

Well. Let me explain. Everything you read here has been well known for over 3 years. It’s a shame that we have done nothing about it.

Under the presidency of George Herbert Walker Bush, Dick Cheney, then Secretary of Defense, paid Brown & Root 8.5 million dollars to do a study on the privatization of military logistics operations. This study established the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program, which gave its first general contract to -- itself, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, and Cheney worked with the pentagon to downsize the military. Cheney left the Department of Defense when the new democratic administration began under President Bill Clinton in January 1993. Cheney then served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Halliburton where he earned at least 44 million dollars during his tenure at the oil and gas service company. He later left his position as CEO on July 25, 2000 to pursue the position of the Vice President of America. During the 1995-2000 period, one dollar of every seven spent by the Pentagon, passed through what is now Kellogg Brown & Root, also known as KBR.

Vice President Dick Cheney claims he has severed all ties with Halliburton, however he continues to collect deferred compensation worth approximately $150,000 a year and he retains stock options worth more then 18 million dollars. Both Cheney and Halliburton have insisted that he had no part in the government’s decision about the Iraq contracts however, the largest contractor KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton, was in Iraq 6 months before the United States decided to go to Iraq. KBR was in Iraq creating an infrastructure to provide help to the American army with tasks such as serving meals to delivering fuel, washing laundry and delivering mail, duties that used to be handled by the Army itself as well as preparing for major construction of refineries, oil fields, pipelines, and chemical plants.

On March 31, 2004 four Blackwater contractors in the Sunni city of Falluja were burned and dragged through the streets and were hung from a bridge. It was the first time Americans learned what private security contractors were and how many of them they were in Iraq. The military at this time was not considering such a drastic show of American might had it not been for this single incident. The military was planning to take over the city of Falluja more diplomatically, and this created frustration between true American soldiers and paid contractors. After an investigation it was found that KBR had hired Blackwater for transportation services in Falluja even though their contract specifically stated that they would be supported only by American troops. Under a congressional hearing Tina Ballard, the Army’s head contracting officer, announced that the Army would recoup 20 million dollars from KBR as it was clear that under several layers of subcontracts Blackwater was hired by KBR. This is not just a matter of secretive markups, tacked on through the subcontracting maze and passed on to the taxpayers. KBR may have knowingly violated military policy, which effectively bans its contractors from engaging any security other than official US forces.

According to the latest census estimates there are 163,000 private contractors in Iraq and 54,000 are from KBR, and although the use of private contractors is not a new concept having over 100,000+ private contractors is a far cry from the estimated 9,200 contractors that worked during the Gulf War. Besides the simple fraud issues between Cheney, Haliburton, KBR & Bush there is more to the story here. Private security contractors like DynCorp International, and Blackwater do not report to anybody. They are immune from Iraqi Law, and they are not punishable by a military tribune since they are not part of the military. These security contractors literally have a license to kill and it frustrates not only our own troops, but Iraqi citizens and insurgents. The entire basis for our country, the United States of America, was founded on the belief that absolute power will inevitably result in absolute corruption, yet we continue to hire private security companies that have absolutely no repercussions. Now just add the jealousy from our troops as private soldiers can earn $400 - $1000 dollars per day, and incredible amount more then a soldier’s salary, and we can see that this is turning into a real problem. We need to get our soldiers, and our private contractors out of Iraq, however just in case you were wondering, KBR is still hiring.

Will the saga end today?

Nope. Today is the democratic primary in Pennsylvania, and Obama & Clinton are still going at it hard. Obama has done quite well so far. He was behind 24 points, and now he is behind 6-9 points (depending on which poll you believe). I think Obama will win Philadelphia and that means he has a real chance to take the state, however whether or not Hillary Clinton wins Pennsylvania the democratic primary will continue. I see no reason why her campaign would concede after the Pennsylvania primary if they haven't conceded before. As Clinton gets tougher and more negative Obama is only getting stronger. Frivolous issues like wearing a lapel pin, his former minister, or his "bitter" comment don't seem to be affecting the polls as much as the Clinton machine wanted. Even today Bill Clinton accused Obama of playing the race card, again and there doesn't seem to be any affect. People have stopped listening to a man whom I consider to be the best president in my generation's lifetime. His comments are not destroying the democratic party, but they are destroying how many Clintonites fell about him. Their tactics are not working anymore because unlike the primaries in Ohio & Texas, Obama learned to play hardball and even the Clintons have got to admit he's quite good at it, and he never steps down to their level while responding to their accusations.

So if someone doesn't concede today what will happen? Basically, more of the same. The democratic party will come together, people forget that most Americans have political ADD. By the time the general election comes around everything that was discussed in the primary will be long forgotten. There is no danger that democrats are going to vote Republican or Independent this time around. I voted for Obama in the New York Primary and I will vote for him the general election. I'm fairly certain that he'll not only win the nomination, but also the general election, however if Hillary Clinton was to somehow win the nomination I would definitely support her in the general election. This is not because I agree with all of her views or her tactics, but McCain would continue the destruction of the United States of America. George W. Bush said he was a uniter, well apparently this was one statement where he was actually truthful. He united 80% of the country to disapprove of his presidency, and I believe that like me, people are so disgusted by republicans that they will continue to vote democratic even if the tactics, or exact views are not to their liking.

Letter to anyone in the Bush Administration

The war in Iraq is nothing other then a civil war. A civil war in which we can not do anything about. Before we took Saddam out of there, he was the one killing terrorists, now the terrorists are free to kill US soldiers, civilians, and Iraqi civilians. No matter when we leave, whether it is tomorrow, next year, or 10 years from now, a massive civil war will break out, and there is nothing we can do to stop it since this we are fighting a social & political issue with our military. You can not fight fanatical religious beliefs with legislation or with an army. The only thing we can do is try to educate them - how? Instead of spending trillions of dollars on this "war", we should offer money for school systems, utilities, and other uses, however we should be able to control these funds by making sure Iraq follows simple guidelines such as a) arresting terrorists, b) destroying corruption, and c) teaching tolerance in all levels of the school system. We can take a lesson from the European Union that gives enormous sums of money, however would stop funding the country if rules were not met.

Interference by the United States (from 1937+) in the middle east has only had a negative effect, and though most Americans understand that we need to have some sort of political assertion as we require their resources there has to be limitations. Our foreign policy should be changed to be appear more diplomatic, rather then looking like the Marlboro Man.