When you hear a term used like “the cost of war”, many times its associated with the loss of lives. But here are a few costs of war facts that hit the American people right in the pocket. And make the continued loss of life in Iraq even more sickening when combined with knowing some of the amounts of profiteering on the human lives of our friends and family serving.
The company in question? The infamous Halliburton. We’ve heard of them, and we know what we hear isn’t good. Close associated ties with Dick Cheney. Pay offs. No-bid contracts etc. But I wanted to take a look at the numbers and share some of those with all of you.
-1992, Secretary of Defense Cheney. Starts a campaign for privatizing the militaries civil logistics. It pays $9 million to KBR a Halliburton subsidiary co., for a feasibility study on that matter. The KBR study showed it was in the best interest of the government to privatize. And was rewarded with that same contract they did the study for. Three years later in 1995 awarded their CEO position to the same Dick Cheney.
-After only 5 years of working for Halliburton, Cheney’s retirement package included a $20 million bonus. In addition to a deferred salary of $150,000 per year. And 433,333 shares of unexercised company stock options that are worth an approximate $8 million.
-Some of the recent misdeeds Halliburton has been and is currently being audited on include. Severe cost overruns, waste, employee kickbacks, the torching of $85,000 trucks that needed only minor repairs, billing $45 for cases of soda or $100 for a bag of laundry. And reports of serving expired food at meals, and when caught, over billing on meals. Serving 10,000 and billing for 20,000 to make up for the loss of profit on the spoiled food. There’s also evidence that contaminated water was knowingly put back into circulation and given to the troops for daily use.
-Civilian employees in Iraq, who threaten to become whistle blowers. Have been threatened with transfer into high fire zones to shut them up.
Now here are the hard numbers
In 1999 Halliburton posted revenues of $14.9 billion
Compare that to 2006 at $22.6 billion in revenues
And a reported profit of $2.3 billion.
Those total revenues of $22.6 billion break down to $62 Million a DAY in revenue!
That’s over $2.5 million for every hour of every day, this war is dragged out.
Big business has no conscience for human life. And with profit potential like that available in Iraq and maybe Iran.
The old saying about “risk being worth the reward” does not apply here. There is no risk when you sit in the ivory tower of a CEO or a Vice Presidency. It is All reward for them. They place no value on the troops, the people of Iraq or the world’s public opinion. Each round fired needs replacement, every broken pipeline is another repair.
Every drop of blood needs to be washed away…washed away for profit, washed away from the evidence of human greed.
And washed away to hide the over $27.5 million they made on each one of the 821 soldiers that died in the year of 2006 alone.
When you hear a term used like “the cost of war”, many times its associated with the loss of lives. But here are a few costs of war facts that hit the American people right in the pocket. And make the continued loss of life in Iraq even more sickening when combined with knowing some of the amounts of profiteering on the human lives of our friends and family serving.
The company in question? The infamous Halliburton. We’ve heard of them, and we know what we hear isn’t good. Close associated ties with Dick Cheney. Pay offs. No-bid contracts etc. But I wanted to take a look at the numbers and share some of those with all of you.
-1992, Secretary of Defense Cheney. Starts a campaign for privatizing the militaries civil logistics. It pays $9 million to KBR a Halliburton subsidiary co., for a feasibility study on that matter. The KBR study showed it was in the best interest of the government to privatize. And was rewarded with that same contract they did the study for. Three years later in 1995 awarded their CEO position to the same Dick Cheney.
-After only 5 years of working for Halliburton, Cheney’s retirement package included a $20 million bonus. In addition to a deferred salary of $150,000 per year. And 433,333 shares of unexercised company stock options that are worth an approximate $8 million.
-Some of the recent misdeeds Halliburton has been and is currently being audited on include. Severe cost overruns, waste, employee kickbacks, the torching of $85,000 trucks that needed only minor repairs, billing $45 for cases of soda or $100 for a bag of laundry. And reports of serving expired food at meals, and when caught, over billing on meals. Serving 10,000 and billing for 20,000 to make up for the loss of profit on the spoiled food. There’s also evidence that contaminated water was knowingly put back into circulation and given to the troops for daily use.
-Civilian employees in Iraq, who threaten to become whistle blowers. Have been threatened with transfer into high fire zones to shut them up.
Now here are the hard numbers
In 1999 Halliburton posted revenues of $14.9 billion
Compare that to 2006 at $22.6 billion in revenues
And a reported profit of $2.3 billion.
Those total revenues of $22.6 billion break down to $62 Million a DAY in revenue!
That’s over $2.5 million for every hour of every day, this war is dragged out.
Big business has no conscience for human life. And with profit potential like that available in Iraq and maybe Iran.
The old saying about “risk being worth the reward” does not apply here. There is no risk when you sit in the ivory tower of a CEO or a Vice Presidency. It is All reward for them. They place no value on the troops, the people of Iraq or the world’s public opinion. Each round fired needs replacement, every broken pipeline is another repair.
Every drop of blood needs to be washed away…washed away for profit, washed away from the evidence of human greed.
And washed away to hide the over $27.5 million they made on each one of the 821 soldiers that died in the year of 2006 alone.