Wondering why the Bush administration is so obsessed with
invading and occupying Iraq? Just follow the money to Dick Cheney?s
old friends at Halliburton. As Arianna Huffington reports in
tompaine.com, the vice president?s former company cleaned
up very nicely after Gulf War I (during which Cheney served as
secretary of defense) and stands to profit handsomely after the
sequel. ?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,?
Huffington notes. And in a secret meeting last October, Cheney
gathered his colleagues from the Dallas-based energy company?and
other oil industry executives?to discuss how to carve up the spoils
from Gulf War II. ?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,? Huffington writes. ?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.?
–Craig Cox
