Article Opinion

Article Opinion

Article Opinion

Hey ivyandroses@yahoo.com:

Ille gal aliens can’t collect welfare, genius. On the contrary, they pay into the social security system for benefits they’re not eligible to collect.

Hey ivyandroses@yahoo.com:

Ille gal aliens can’t collect welfare, genius. On the contrary, they pay into the social security system for benefits they’re not eligible to collect.

JH, not only is it justifiable, it is our duty and our right to off these fuc*ers if they have already usurped our legal and governmental institutions to the degree that they have become untouchable.
Forests being illegaly destroyed in Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia? A well organized team of global patriots with prior military experience living in the forest to protect it would do. They would not be able to hire a single driver or logger if they were being shot indiscriminately. It is time to take your planet back from these creatures. While I don’t condone violence by any means, most of those folks seem to only understand that one thing. If the Executives of halliburton start getting whacked for their misdeeds, do you think perhaps they will change their ways? What if it’s their wives and children being shot? We should show compassion? perhaps we should show them the same compassion they show our children by sending them to quagmires designed only to keep them occupied. C’MON SOLDIER, USE THAT TRAINING TO PROTECT YOUR HOMEWORLD, TAKE OUT A BUFFETT OR A MORGAN OR A ROCKEFELLER TODAY!!

Would that Americans would read their own history! There is nothing new about Iraq.WAR IS A RACKET wrote Marine General Smedley Butler, of WW1 and all the wars he led in the early 1900’s: “The normal profits of a business concern in the United States are six, eight, ten, and sometimes twelve percent. But war-time profits – ah! that is another matter – twenty, sixty, one hundred, three hundred, and even eighteen hundred per cent – the sky is the limit. All that traffic will bear. Uncle Sam has the money. Let’s get it.

Of course, it isn’t put that crudely in war time. It is dressed into speeches about patriotism, love of country, and “we must all put our shoulders to the wheel,” but the profits jump and leap and skyrocket – and are safely pocketed. Let’s just take a few examples:

Take our friends the du Ponts, the powder people – didn’t one of them testify before a Senate committee recently that their powder won the war? Or saved the world for democracy? Or something? How did they do in the war? They were a patriotic corporation. Well, the average earnings of the du Ponts for the period 1910 to 1914 were $6,000,000 a year. It wasn’t much, but the du Ponts managed to get along on it. Now let’s look at their average yearly profit during the war years, 1914 to 1918. Fifty-eight million dollars a year profit we find! Nearly ten times that of normal times, and the profits of normal times were pretty good. An increase in profits of more than 950 per cent.

Take one of our little steel companies that patriotically shunted aside the making of rails and girders and bridges to manufacture war materials. Well, their 1910-1914 yearly earnings averaged $6,000,000. Then came the war. And, like loyal citizens, Bethlehem Steel promptly turned to munitions making. Did their profits jump – or did they let Uncle Sam in for a bargain? Well, their 1914-1918 average was $49,000,000 a year!

Or, let’s take United States Steel. The normal earnings during the five-year period prior to the war were $105,000,000 a year. Not bad. Then along came the war and up went the profits. The average yearly profit for the period 1914-1918 was $240,000,000. Not bad.

There you have some of the steel and powder earnings. Let’s look at something else. A little copper, perhaps. That always does well in war times.

Anaconda, for instance. Average yearly earnings during the pre-war years 1910-1914 of $10,000,000. During the war years 1914-1918 profits leaped to $34,000,000 per year.

Or Utah Copper. Average of $5,000,000 per year during the 1910-1914 period. Jumped to an average of $21,000,000 yearly profits for the war period.” SO WHY DID IT TAKE LEADING INTELLECTUALS HERE TO FIGURE OUT THE NATURE OF THE IRAQ WAR?

I’m pretty sure that this is not how you should fortify a conquered country. Especially one still in the grip of war.
It’s just stupid and short sighted.
If The USA wants to stay ‘until the job is done’ then it’s going about it’s management of the war the wrong way.

would killing these sick people be considered justifiable homicide? How many lives would be saved if these corrupt contractors started dieing off and legitimate workers replaced them? I imagine if all that money had been spent moderately well the infrastructure in these countries would have improved enough to encourage less resistance from the occupied natives. These dogs of war have only helped drag out an occupation resulting in thousands more dead. They should be tried for treason and war crimes.

The foolish American tax-payers definitley deserve such swindlers and swindling, because many of them can’t even locate their own country on the world map. America always engages in periodical wars to destroy to rebuild again. Its financiers also regularly get into trouble (witness the recent sub-prime fiasco) so the money can be recycled again. It used to be that America was run by the Military-Industrial complex. Now the War Profiteers and Dubious Financiers have joined the Military-Industry complex. God Save America or will he?

Unfortunately, war profiteers have been with us since the the very beginning of wars. Harry Truman was a nondescript congressman from missouri until he was placed in charge of invesigating war profiteering during ww2. Do you think it is merely coincidence that Haliburton moved its headquarters and reincorperated in the Arab United Emerites after the democrats took over congress?

Right now our biggest private contracter in Iraq is a company located in a country without an extradition treaty with the United States.

I think we should stay for as long as we can and try to make things right.

To consider this liberal banter is ridiculous. What this is is an attempt to show the absurd amount of taxer payers money being wasted on non-functioning structures. As for sixinonehand we know this is war but thats no excuse for wasting yours and my hard earned money. To write this off as it’s just war is one of the most ignorant close minded approach to our country’s situation. As for Haliburton getting no-bid contracts they are one of the most qualified companies in the world to take on tasks such as cleaning up disasters like stopping burning oil wells in the middle east or natural disasters in the US and yes Clinton contacted them while Chenney was the CEO so it’s not just the Bush administration or republicans it’s because they are qualified and up until KBR’s recent folly have been great.

Kool-aid drinkers: “This is all part of war, you tree-hugging wacko liberals.”
Somehow I can hear that echo, all the way from middle America……….

Excellent article. It is so shocking! I don’t know where to begin? New accounting/auditing measures must be set in place.

Who in their right mind sends a pallet containing billions of dollars of cash(!) anywhere, especially to a warzone? Who constructs an unusable building? Who would ever give tainted food and water to our soldiers? (That’s treason!)

If we taxpayers really new what happens to our tax dollars, we would never be able to sleep again.

This excellent article should be required reading for all elected officials AND all taxpayers.

ivyandroses@yahoo.com: Nice one smarty.

I would rather toss money too corporations than to Welfared Illegal aliens anyday.
At least the money gets spent here.

Great writing! This just confirms that this war was all about War-Profiteering from the start. More $$$ for mostly Republican cronies, who do this crap without conscience.

Every Blue-Dog Democrat needs this shoved under their nose before they vote to continue this shameless money-making scam on the American people.

Confused, you just piss me off. I just hate seeing utter stupidity printed on my screen. RS has ALWAYS done investigative pieces– probably since before you were born. I’m wondering where the hell you’ve been, and then I’m figuring you’ve probably never actually read an issue of RS and you just stumbled on that article and this blog.

I will type this slowly so you can read it:

CNN and Fox DON’T DO pertinent stories like this. somebody needs to, and I’m damn glad RS does. I wish they’d do more.

CNN and Fox are the ones covering Brittney’s hangover and Anna’s last baby. We have to go to RS and Daily Show to get the real news.

Hey confused…you certainly are. Music and politics have always mixed.

Keep up the good work Rolling Stone. You have me considering a subscription.

Hey confused…you certainly are. Music and have always mixed.

Keep up the good work Rolling Stone. You have me considering a subscription.

My biggest question is: Why does Rolling Stone, a music magazine, feel the need to voice their opinion about anything other than music? You want infromation about world polotics? CNN or Fox would be your choices, depending on which side you happen to lean. You want to know about, hell, I dunno, Britney Spears new tatoo, or something, read RS.

What makes it even worse is the fact that they are stealing AND not even doing what it was they were being paid to do.
I can understand that it costs a hell of a lot more money to build a school or a hospital or a police station in the middle of a war zone.
But for crissakes, BUILD the damn thing.
Lord, if they were only taking the stacks of greenbacks like pez candy but at least getting something done, it wouldn’t be so bad..

Face it Wally, anything you write about would sauod stupid, and just for your edification, Matt Taibbi doesn’t do Record Reviews.

As a man who’s brother works as an Officer for the Heavy Equipment Operator’s Union of Wisconsin, I hear a lot about the things going on with companies like KBR and the rest, and his biggest gripe to date would have to be the fact that after Katrina hit, the government (Cheney?) once again sent Halliburton in on a no bid contract!! So it’s not just happening overseas, it’s going on right in our backyard…
P.S. Last week, Madison, Wisconsin’s County Board voted in favor of IMPEACHING Pres. Bush!! there are only a handful of County Governments across the Country that have done the same, but I’m thinking that if everyone wrote to thier local Representitive, we might get this little Stone Rolling into a Rock Slide…

Walter, was that supposed to be English?

I couldn’t hear the talk over the music, but you will see stuff like that on and stateside construction contract. It is a bit harder when they shoot at you. As for cost plus contracts, the auditors who check you are people too mean for tax audits. I suspect if I tried to write about the music business I would sauod as stupid as this writer does about construction.

“It is obvious that the writer of this set out to produce a discrediting account of how contracting works. ”

Hahahahaha which contractor do you work for?

This is what happens when you vote for Demublicans and Republicrats. It’s a one party system… a vote for the “liberal” is the same as a vote for the “conservative.”

This is what happens when you vote for Demublicans and Republicrats. It’s a one party system… a vote for the “liberal” is the same as a vote for the “conservative.”

Excellent, well written article Matt!

How sad it is that these no-bid contractors have found a way to get away with stealing this Country blind, and done it with the permission of some of our “leaders.”

Anyone with half a brain KNOWS that there are safeguards which can be written in to any contract to limit the contractor’s ability to bilk you out of all you own. For instance, a “cost plus” agreement is an excellent way to do business, IF there is a “not to exceed” clause built-in. That way the contractor can only spend a specified amount. Time limits and penalities for not meeting construction schedules are also a simple fix.

Keep up the good work, guys! America is on the road to extinction if we don’t speak up.

When the soldiers refuse to go,
When the bureaucrats stop forwarding the paperwork,
When all the workers refuse to produce the munitions and arms,
When all the little Eichmanns of the CIA, NSA, DIA, etc., refuse to continue,
Then, maybe then,
We’ll see an end to this.
Only a fool would expect a change from the top down: it will not happen.

My husband is in the military.

Please! Someone help us!!

Save our country!!

Rent a convention center. Put the contractors in there with the troops they were supposed to take care of. Close the door. Come back in an hour wiht plenty of body bags. No questions asked.

I recall Dr. King Jr. saying if a man has nothing to die for, then he isn’t fit to live. Well if this isn’t enough then perhaps we don’t. Perhaps we deserve a slow fall into a police state.

I’m choking on my own (impotent) rage.

Taibbi is excellent, but I’m curious: why no byline in the online version of this article?

Until we stop expecting a complicit Congress to stop this monster and his minions, we are whistling “Dixie” and spitting into the wind simultaneously. We the people are all that stands between Bushido Banzai and utter destruction and until we can motivate middle America we have no hope of stopping him. The government needs us to stay stupid, broke, and afraid and so far they are successful with enough Americans to allow the majority no time or energy for the grave threats to our country that are destroying us from the top down. Though our choir is growing, our preaching is still only reaching and moving only a tiny fraction of our citizenry. Are you going to be in DC in September? Unless there are a million of us, it will be just more window dressing.

how about this, reinstate the draft and conscript the children of all the politicians who keep approving this boondoggle and the children of all the executive officers of the companies doing business in iraq. Would that ensure a positive conclusion? perhaps not, but it would make them actually care more and be truthful to themselves and us.

This is enough to make one cry.

Congress, has as its DUTY, the obligation to the AMERICA PEOPLE, to fully investigate and bring to justice these bastards…whomever they are, and where ever the investigation leads. Treasonous leaches.

remeber during the build up to the war, when countries refused to join the warmongers in their endeavor, the threat was… ‘only countries that help us in this will get the rebuilding contracts’… shouldn’t that have been a sign of what the real intent of the war was, to make some bloated companies even more powerful.

This is treason with the government’s blessing.

Both the people who committed it and the people who authorized it should be tried for sabotaging our military effort in a time of war. It’snot just the troops either. It also sabotages our political efforts with the Iraqi people.

It’s not about wasting money if you ask me. It’s about willful greedy harm being done to American efforts in a time of war. People died on both sides because of these things.

The average American would be shocked if he knew how many generals retire and immediately go to work for the defense industry. They have a period where they can’t promote goods or services for programs they were responsible for but their rank gives them plenty of access.

Some of what they peddle is what the military has asked for and wants. Too much of it is unsolicited and unneeded.

In Iraq and Afghanistan we’re not employing Iraqis and Afghanis but third country nationals. We’re not using Iraqi and Afghan companies to provide the goods and services, but companies that aren’t Iraqi or Afghan.

All you have to do is ask the obvious? How can a nation of 26 million be the recipient of an 8 to 10 billion dollar infusion of capital each month and still have 50 percent unemployment?

This article was only the barest glimpse of contracting fraud in Iraq. I am a three tour Marine vet who has believed in my job from day one. This last tour I was so disheartened and sickened by the profiteering I saw that I, along with my contingent of Marines, felt we were only there to help keep the war going so the chow halls and contractors could keep the money flowing. Thanks for getting word out to everyone else who doesn’t get to see this first hand like I have had to.

It is all true…be there done that…..

to flythemig29:

okay, if that’s true, why don’t you find out and tell us the “real” story?

RON PAUL 08! Its been awhile since the CIA assassinated a president!

Thank you, RS, for publishing important and illuminating articles like this one!

It is obvious that the writer of this set out to produce a discrediting account of how contracting works. He has issued disinformation. In other words he gives some facts without the understanding of what events transpired to create them. He should have written for Pravda.

isn’t stealing from the nation during a time of war tantamount to treason? Isn’t profiteering from war tantamount to benefiting from the deaths of others, ie. murder? We know how treason and murder should be punished, they deserve no less.

All the contracts since the start of the war are to be analyzed and scrutinized by a special team. Wow, it only took 4 years and hundreds of complaints and allegations. I hope they haven’t set it up to where they investigate themselves.

I just read the article about the cost-plus contracting in Iraq. I find it hard to believe the deceipt and corruption involved in this article. We as Americans have failed the system just as much as the system has failed us. The people mentioned in this articled are no better then Sadaam or Osama themselves Terrorists. Everyday honest Ameticans work their ass off or put their lives on the line and these animals do nothing but take advantage of the flawed system. Men like Earnest Robbins and Mark Atwood should be held accountable for their crimes against the American tax payers and the Iraqi people counting on them to rebuild a new Iraq. If the Supreme Court doesn’t see this for what it really is then they are just as guilty as Bush, KBR, Wolfpack….

Your recent article re the great swindle by American Contractors…I have been challenged as to its verosity…Help me defend your piece.