The Bottom Line on Iraq: It's the Bottom Line

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http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15213

 

 

The Bottom Line on Iraq: It's the Bottom Line

 

By Arianna Huffington, AlterNet

February 19, 2003

 

Boys, boys, you're all right. Sure, it's Daddy, oil and imperialism, not to

mention a messianic sense of righteous purpose, a deep-seated contempt for the

peace movement and, to be fair, the irrefutable fact that the world would be a

better place without Saddam Hussein.

 

 

 

But there's also an overarching mentality feeding the administration's

collective delusions, and it can be found by looking to corporate America's

bottom line. The dots leading from Wall Street to the West Wing situation room

are the ones that need connecting. There's money to be made in post-war Iraq,

and the sooner we get the pesky war over with, the sooner we (by which I mean

George Bush's corporate cronies) can start making it.

 

 

 

The nugget of truth that former Bush economic guru Lawrence Lindsey let slip

last fall shortly before he was shoved out the oval office door says it all.

Momentarily forgetting that he was talking to the press and not his buddies in

the White House, he admitted: " The successful prosecution of the war would be

good for the economy. "

 

 

 

To hell with worldwide protests, an unsupportive Security Council, a

diplomatically dubious Hans Blix, an Osama giddy at the prospect of a united

Arab world and a panicked populace grasping at the very slender reed of duct

tape and Saran Wrap to protect itself from the inevitable terrorist blow-back –

the business of America is still business.

 

 

 

No one in the administration embodies this bottom line mentality more than Dick

Cheney. The vice president is one of those ideological purists who never let

little things like logic, morality, or mass murder interfere with the

single-minded pursuit of profits.

 

 

 

His on-again, off-again relationship with the Butcher of Baghdad is a textbook

example of what modern moralists condemn as " situational ethics, " an extremely

convenient code that allows you to do what you want when you want and still feel

good about it in the morning. In the Cheney White House (let's call it what it

is), anything that can be rationalized is right.

 

 

 

The two were clearly on the outs back during the Gulf War, when Cheney was

Secretary of Defense, and the first President Bush dubbed Saddam " Hitler

revisited. "

 

 

 

Then Cheney moved to the private sector and suddenly things between him and

Saddam warmed up considerably. With Cheney in the CEO's seat, Halliburton helped

Iraq reconstruct its war-torn oil industry with $73 million worth of equipment

and services – becoming Baghdad's biggest such supplier. Kinda nice how that

worked out for the vice-president, really: Oversee the destruction of an

industry that you then profit from by rebuilding.

 

 

 

When, during the 2000 campaign, Cheney was asked about his company's Iraqi

escapades, he flat out denied them. But the truth remains: When it came to

making a buck, Cheney apparently had no qualms about doing business with " Hitler

revisited. "

 

 

 

And make no mistake, this wasn't a case of hard-nosed realpolitik – the

rationale for Rummy's cuddly overtures to Saddam back in '83 despite his almost

daily habit of gassing Iranians. That, we were told, was all about " the enemy of

my enemy is my friend. "

 

 

 

No, Cheney's company chose to do business with Saddam after the rape of Kuwait.

After Scuds had been fired at Tel Aviv and Riyadh. After American soldiers had

been sent home from Desert Storm in body bags.

 

 

 

And in 2000, just months before pocketing his $34 million Halliburton retirement

package and joining the GOP ticket, Cheney was lobbying for an end to U.N.

sanctions against Saddam.

 

 

 

Of course, American businessmen are nothing if not flexible. So his former

cronies at Halliburton are now at the head of the line of companies expected to

reap the estimated $2 billion it will take to rebuild Iraq's oil infrastructure

following Saddam's ouster. This burn-and-build approach to business guarantees

that there will be a market for Halliburton's services as long as it has a

friend in high places to periodically carpet bomb a country for it.

 

 

 

In the meantime, Halliburton, among many other Pentagon contracts, has a

lucrative 10-year deal to provide food services to the Army that comes with no

lid on potential costs. Lenin once scoffed that " a capitalist would sell rope to

his own hangman. " And, while the man got more than a few things wrong, he's been

proven right on this one time and time again: From Hewlett-Packard and Bechtel

helping arm Saddam back in the 80s, to the good folks at Boeing, Hughes

Electronics, Lockheed Martin and Loral Space whose corporate greed helped China

steal rocket and missile secrets – and point a few dozen long-range nukes our

way.

 

 

 

Clearly, our national interest runs a distant second when pitted against the

rapacious desires of special interests and the politicians they buy with massive

campaign contributions. Oil and gas companies donated $26.7 million to Bush and

his fellow Republicans during the 2000 election and another $18 million in 2002.

So does it really come as any surprise that Cheney's staff held secret meetings

in October with executives from Exxon Mobil, ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips – and

yes, Halliburton – to discuss who would get what in a post-Saddam Iraq? As they

say, to the victors – and the big buck donors – go the sp-oil-s.

 

 

 

Here's my bottom line: At a time of war, at what point does subverting our

national security in the name of profitability turn from ugly business into high

treason?

 

 

 

Arianna Huffington is the author of " Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and

Political Corruption are Undermining America. " For information on the book,

visit www.PigsAtTheTrough.com.

 

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