Halliburton Rules

The headline says it all, and just in case you’re interested, I’ve included a link to the actual article where you can learn more and really get your blood boiling.  Here it is:
Army Plans to End Contentious Halliburton Logistics Pact and Split Work Among Companies
The pact paid Halliburton more than $15 billion to do jobs like deliver food and fuel and construct housing for U.S. troops around the world.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/13/washington/13halliburton.html?th&emc=th

When is it going to end?  I mean, there have always been political shenanigans going on behind closed doors, but this has been the most flagrant conflict of interest I have ever seen.  There’s nothing “back door” about it.  The Bush administration, led by the anti-christ himself – ex Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney, has been flaunting this one in front of the cameras for years!  They haven’t made any attempt to keep it from public view, which in my mind is the brilliance of the scheme.  It’s the only way they’d have been able to get away with it.

The premise is really quite simple.  We’re at war (aren’t we?), and that calls for drastic measures.  But wait, it gets better.  We’re not at war with an actual enemy; we’re at war with a concept!  It’s not a war on Iraq; it’s a war on terrorism.  And, as long as we’re at war, we can ignore things like rules and regulations and the Geneva Convention.  Well, the jury’s still out on the last one, but you get my drift.

So, the war on terror not only gives the Bush administration (and any US administration that follows) the right to march around invading foreign nations, it apparently also gives them the right to give their business cronies buckets and buckets of money.  Dick Cheney was instrumental in building the construction division of Halliburton, and now his administration (oops, I mean the Bush Administration) has been giving that very division billions of dollars worth of no-bid government contracts.

But why stop there?  Surely there’s other human suffering to profit from?  Hey, that’s it, target suffering and terrorism!  Why not give Halliburton billions more dollars to “help” reconstruct New Orleans?  It was a natural disaster, after all, and that calls for drastic measures.  (Note the reoccurring theme here.)  There’s surely no time for accepting bids from other contractors.  May as well just give a blank check to someone we trust.  Of course, our buddy Dick has arranged to give that check to a company that still pays him dividends and bonuses, and whose stock he happens to own in amounts measured by the truckload.

(Halliburton may not escape the New Orleans debacle, however.  Those numbers are being watched, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some Halliburton heads will roll.  Certainly not Dick’s, though.  He’s a federal politician, and has acted as best he could given these trying times.  No, Dick will come out smelling like a rose.)

Why haven’t we been screaming about this for the last five years?  Moreover, why hasn’t the press been hounding Dick Cheney everywhere he goes?  I realize that the anti-christ may be a somewhat foreboding character, but he should still be held accountable, right?  But here’s the brilliant part, and it’s beautiful in its simplicity:  You can’t be held accountable if you’re not doing anything wrong!  There’s nothing to punish if no crime has been committed.  So, harkening back to lessons learned in Nazi Germany, the Feds have been feeding us the “Great Lie”, and we’ve been eating it up.  Whether it’s illegal prisons, wire-tapping or unjust wars, as long as it’s being done right in front of us without an air of secrecy, we accept it as not only legal, but reasonable and necessary.  And, our blind faith has resulted in Dick and his buddies becoming very, very rich.

When will it end?  Probably never.  All I can say is that I bought Halliburton when it was at $32.  Lots of it.  Suckers!!!