There's money to be made in war

There is scattered reporting going on about nations and countries starting to squabble over how to divy up the rebuilding of Iraq. The US wants the spoils for the "coalition" (though mostly for itself). Others are pressing for the UN (particularly France) under concerns that non-"coalition" member's companies may get excluded. There are discussions of war profiteering - mostly on the rebuilding side, but certainly arms manufacturers are smiling these days. But the two reports that struck me were Halliburton handed no-bid Iraqi oil firefighting contract (though this has been put on hold temporarily), and one from the Portugal News on4/4/03 US arms group (Carlyle) heads for Lisbon.

Now these articles struck me because VP Cheney is the ex-CEO of Halliburton, and because of the Bush connection with Carlyle. The Bush connection came out in March 2002 The big guys work for Carlyle.

For those who are unfamiliar with Carlyle, it is a very prestigious (and very low-profile) investment firm "inside the beltway" as they say. Bush Sr. is on their board and has acted as a spokesperson to foreign nations for them. Carlyle is loaded with heavyweight former heads of state and others high up in the ruling elites of (primarily) western nations. Their attendance at the Lisbon meeting of big armament firms is to be expected, as their holdings are doing well supplying the majority of armaments to the "coalition."

So we have Carlyle and their customers profiting on there being big conflicts, and Halliburton (among others) hoping to get a shoo-in on the repair/rebuild business.

Now it could be argued that cronyism plays no part in any of this. Afterall, Bush, Cheney, and the whole Administration are the corporately best connected group to ever hold office. The fact that big interests are manuevering for big contracts is a fact of life. It is just coincidental and there are no conflict of interests.

If I were in a very charitable mood, and totally uninformed, I might even give that argument a small bit of credence. However, and this is not confined to the current admin, there is quite a history of the revolving door (seems like more of a mobious strip to me) between heavies in business - heavies in government/military. They leave office and move into lucrative corporate positions (or set up consulting firms (eg. Perle)), and then move back into government as advisors, board members, Congress people, Presidents and their staff, etc. When their time is "served," they move back into those lucrative corporate environments. Parlaying their decison-maker connections into handsome compensation until they move back into "public life" again.

Of course this is a highly distasteful (and some will argue inappropriate) topic given the events in Iraq. But if the "big guys" are manuevering, shouldn't we be watching? It is hard for me to believe that the connections between government decison-makers, and their "private" time bread and butter, have no effect on the course they set.

If you are interested in a quick look at the Administration's corporate connections and bio's (as well as those of Congress), check out OpenSecrets.org.

Posted by rowan at April 5, 2003 7:43 AM | [eMail this article!] |