For a while now, it has looked like the Bush administration would do well to distance themselves from Halliburton. It seems they may have missed the opportunity, as the administration’s favourite defence contractor seems to want out of some of its highest profile contracts. While the firm’s name has come to symbolise all that is wrong with the administration’s spending and empire-building policies, this Guardian piece reveals that it itself is facing difficult times.
If Halliburton does indeed sell Kellogg Brown & Root, the division responsible for their ill-gotten Iraq contract, it will demonstrate once again how far short of the promises Bush’s Iraq policy has fallen. Involvement in “rebuilding” Iraq has become a liability for those few who looked set to gain and companies are beginning to crumble in much the same way as the country’s basic infrastructure.
I must confess that this was one area where I did think the administration just might succeed. But it looks even their attempts at profiteering exploded in their faces. I’m imagining this story could work well as a follow-up to Pirates of the Carribean.
That makes for very interesting reading. Only the other day I was reading letters from soldiers serving in Iraq published in a newspaper, with one talking of how he saw the war there effectively as a big exercise in making money for all sorts of interests.
I’m thinking that would be this piece?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1319718,00.html
I’m wishing it would turn up in some US publications. Had been meaning to blog the link, in fact.
That is indeed the one. Maybe it’s just appealing to my innate predjudices, but those kind of candid resposes from people living the situations seems to be sorely needed in puncturing the bubble of hot air over much of the ‘official’ discussion.