Cheney: Making War for Fun & Profit
Boy, the tone sure has changed in Washington, hasn't it? If you remember, changing the mean-spirited tone on Capital Hill was one of the goals Dick Cheney set for this administration back in 2000.But, times change, I understand that.
Besides, I think Mr. Cheney is getting nervous. It's not easy for war profiteers his age to start a new career. The war in Iraq is getting nastier by the day, a second term is starting to look like a fantasy and then there are those pesky congressmen murmuring about war profiteering.
Thus, the "F word." According to Reuters, Vice President Dick Cheney blurted out the "F word" at Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont during a heated exchange on the Senate floor. Cheney ripped into Leahy for the Democratic senator's criticism this week of alleged war profiteering in Iraq by Halliburton, the oil services company that Cheney once ran, telling him to either "'F' off" or "go 'F' yourself."
According to Salon.com, Cheney as secretary of defense, conveniently changed the rules that restricted private contractors from doing work on U.S. military bases, a move that allowed the Kellogg Brown & Root subsidiary of his future employer Halliburton to receive the first of $2.5 billion in contracts over the next decade.
Also during his tenure as secretary of defense, Cheney oversaw one of the largest privatization efforts in the history of the Pentagon, channeling millions of military dollars to civilian contractors. Two and a half years after Cheney left his federal job, he began cashing in on the very contracts that he helped initiate.
As CEO of Halliburton, Cheney's wealth grew rapidly through government contracts and taxpayer-supported credits doled out by his friends in the military-industrial complex.
When he left the company to work for George W. Bush, Cheney was Halliburton's largest individual shareholder. Helping to shape U.S. policy, he has pursued war as a means to an end, and the end is profit. Halliburton has gotten a large chunk of the billions of taxpayer dollars spent to maintain the troops in invading and occupying Iraq and have gotten the lion's share of rebuilding the infrastructure. As George Washington University professor Steven Spooner noted in an Associated Press interview, "It is close to unprecedented for the government to have given so much of the solution to one contractor."
Last fall, Republicans stripped the Iraq supplemental bill of an anti-profiteering provision that would have held companies holding contracts with the U.S. government criminally accountable for price gouging. For months, Democrats in Congress have sought information about Halliburton's pricing techniques and contract procedures, but the Bush Administration has failed to respond, and have instead stonewalled the public's right to know, while at the same time extending Halliburton's no-bid deal.
On June 16 of this year, Republicans blocked an effort to create stiffer criminal penalties for war profiteering. The bill would have created new penalties - including up to 20 years in jail - for government contractors convicted of inflating the cost of goods or services.
Cheney's privatization of the military has made war profiteering a lucrative career path for anyone who passes through the revolving door between business and government.
And if we, as American citizens, voters and taxpayers, don't like it, Mr. Cheney apparently feels that we should "go F" ourselves.
Besides, I think Mr. Cheney is getting nervous. It's not easy for war profiteers his age to start a new career. The war in Iraq is getting nastier by the day, a second term is starting to look like a fantasy and then there are those pesky congressmen murmuring about war profiteering.
Thus, the "F word." According to Reuters, Vice President Dick Cheney blurted out the "F word" at Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont during a heated exchange on the Senate floor. Cheney ripped into Leahy for the Democratic senator's criticism this week of alleged war profiteering in Iraq by Halliburton, the oil services company that Cheney once ran, telling him to either "'F' off" or "go 'F' yourself."
According to Salon.com, Cheney as secretary of defense, conveniently changed the rules that restricted private contractors from doing work on U.S. military bases, a move that allowed the Kellogg Brown & Root subsidiary of his future employer Halliburton to receive the first of $2.5 billion in contracts over the next decade.
Also during his tenure as secretary of defense, Cheney oversaw one of the largest privatization efforts in the history of the Pentagon, channeling millions of military dollars to civilian contractors. Two and a half years after Cheney left his federal job, he began cashing in on the very contracts that he helped initiate.
As CEO of Halliburton, Cheney's wealth grew rapidly through government contracts and taxpayer-supported credits doled out by his friends in the military-industrial complex.
When he left the company to work for George W. Bush, Cheney was Halliburton's largest individual shareholder. Helping to shape U.S. policy, he has pursued war as a means to an end, and the end is profit. Halliburton has gotten a large chunk of the billions of taxpayer dollars spent to maintain the troops in invading and occupying Iraq and have gotten the lion's share of rebuilding the infrastructure. As George Washington University professor Steven Spooner noted in an Associated Press interview, "It is close to unprecedented for the government to have given so much of the solution to one contractor."
Last fall, Republicans stripped the Iraq supplemental bill of an anti-profiteering provision that would have held companies holding contracts with the U.S. government criminally accountable for price gouging. For months, Democrats in Congress have sought information about Halliburton's pricing techniques and contract procedures, but the Bush Administration has failed to respond, and have instead stonewalled the public's right to know, while at the same time extending Halliburton's no-bid deal.
On June 16 of this year, Republicans blocked an effort to create stiffer criminal penalties for war profiteering. The bill would have created new penalties - including up to 20 years in jail - for government contractors convicted of inflating the cost of goods or services.
Cheney's privatization of the military has made war profiteering a lucrative career path for anyone who passes through the revolving door between business and government.
And if we, as American citizens, voters and taxpayers, don't like it, Mr. Cheney apparently feels that we should "go F" ourselves.
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