Iraq for Sale...

I put my foot down today and decided that I would not spend my evening watching Sponge Bob or iCarly or whatever my daughter wanted to watch tonight.  So I was flipping through the "On Demand"cable menu and I saw "Iraq for Sale."  I remember wanting to watch that, but I don't always get to watch what I want to watch....as you can see from my opening sentence.

"Iraq for Sale" basically goes into detail about the massive profits made by companies like Halliburton/KBR, Blackwater, Titan, and CACI in Iraq.

It made me so damned mad!  These companies made BILLIONS of dollars off the backs of American troops and the American public. 

For example, in order for Paul Bremmer to feel safe, the US government hired Blackwater to protect him.  Apparently our own United Sates Marine Corp was not up to snuff, so the goverment shelled out $21 million.  During that time, Blackwater employees either died in combat (although they were not part of the US military) or killed civilians.  If they killed civilians they were fired and sent home, they did not have to stand trial for killing Iraquis because military law did not apply to them.

According to the Chicago Tribune, about 770 American civilians have been killed in Iraq.  CIVILIANS, not military.  People who were told about all the money they would make if they went to Iraq for a little while to drive trucks, or do laundry, or cook.  Now, in other wars the US has been involved in, the military took care of their own laundry and cooking and such.  But now it needed to outsource these jobs to Halliburton/KBR.  And from what I understand from the film, they did a piss poor job.  Soldiers would send their clothes to be laundered and get their clothes back as if they had never been washed.  KRB charged the US government $100 for each bag of laundry it "washed."  KBR refused to have 24 food service because it was too expensive, so soldiers had to wait over an hour to get food.  And because they would stand in these huge food lines, insurgents knew just went to attack.  Civialian truck drivers were told to just get out there and drive convoys back and forth...sometimes with empty trucks.  Just so Halliburton could add it to the bill.

And another thing that pissed me off was that Halliburton was supposed to build water purification systems so that soldiers would have safe water to cook with and bathe with.  Turns out a huge MAJORITY of the water purification systems did not work.  So soldiers were bathing in and drinking water that was tainted with things like fecal matter, malaria, and typhoid.  The US government knew this and STILL paid Halliburton!

Now CACI and Titan...they provided interrogation and interpretation services.  Many of the interpreters only had a rudimentary understanding of Arabic and Farsi...so God knows what shape any data or intel secured looked like.  Oh...and they tortured prisoners, many of which were just picked up off the street for no reason.  One of these such "insurgents" was an older woman who was told that if she didn't confess everything she knew about the insurgency, she would be gang raped.  That just makes me proud to be an American.  And if you have never heard of CACI and Titan...just google Abu Ghraib.

Now let me ask you this.....what do all these companies have in common?  These companies have major connections to the Bush administration.  They have made huge contributions to Republican causes.  And let's not forget, Dick Cheyney, the Dick as I like to call him, is the former CEO of Halliburton.

It makes me mad because there was NO need for us to go into Iraq in the first place.  There were no Weapons of Mass Destruction.  Alquaeda was not there before we invaded...athough they are there now thanks to the war.  And over 100,000 Iraqui human beings are gone. 

This war plunged us into debt and these companies got rich of off it while hurting the American Soldier, the American Public, the Iraqui Public, the American Image as a leader, and even their own employees.  All of this happened during the Bush/Cheyney administration.

Tonight is the last night this administration will be in power and I have to say, I have been celebrating this last night with my good friend Captain Morgan.  And tomorrow at noon we will start a brand new era of change...THANK GOD.

I was talking with my a friend today about the last eight years and what they have meant to this country.  And my friend asked why George Bush and Dick Cheyney weren't being charged with crimes against humanity.  I have to say...that would be a great idea!