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Updated 25 February 2003
Arianna Huffington
Boy, Boys, you're all right. Sure, it's Daddy, oil and imperialism, not to mention a messianic sense of righteous purpose, a deep-seated contempt for the peace movement and, to be fair, the irrefutable fact that the world would be a better place without Sadam Hussein.
But there's also an overarching mentality feeding the administration's collective delusions, and it can be found by looking to corporate America's bottom line. There's money to be made in post-war Iraq, and the sooner we get the pesky war over with, the sooner we (by which I mean President Bush's corporate cronies) can start making it.
The nugget of truth that former Bush economic guru Lawrence Lindsey let slip last fall, shortly before he was shoved out the Oval Office door, says it all. Momentarily forgetting that he was talking to the press and not his buddies in the White House, he admitted: "The successful prosecution of the war would be good for the economy."
To hell with worldwide protests, an Osama bin Laden giddy at the prospect of a united Arab world and a panicked populace stocking up on duct tape and plastic sheeting to protect itself from the inevitable terrorist blow-back -- the business of America is still business.
No one in the administration embodies this bottom line mentality more than Dick Cheney. The vice president is one of those ideological purists who never let little things like logic, morality or mass murder interfere with the single-minded pursuit of profitability.
His on-again, off-again relationship with the Butcher of Baghdad is a textbook example of what modern moralists condemn as "situational ethics," an extremely convenient code that allows you to do what you want when you want and still feel good about it in the morning.
The two were clearly on the outs during the Persian Gulf War, when Cheney was secretary of defense and the first President Bush dubbed Hussein "Hitler revisited."
Then Cheney moved to the private sector, and suddenly things between him and Hussein warmed up considerably. 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. Kinda nice how that worked out for the vice president, really: Oversee the destruction of an industry that you then profit from by rebuilding.
When, during the 2000 campaign, Cheney was asked about his company's Iraqi escapades, he flat out denied them. But the truth remains: When it came to making a buck, Cheney apparently had no qualms about doing business with "Hitler revisited."
And make no mistake, this wasn't a case of hard-nosed realpolitik -- the rationale for Rummy's cuddly overtures to Hussein back in '83 despite his almost daily habit of gassing Iranians. No, Cheney's company chose to do business with Hussein after the rape of Kuwait. After Scuds had been fired at Tel Aviv and Riyadh. After American soldiers had been sent home from Desert Storm in body bags.
And in 2000, just months before pocketing his $34 million Halliburton retirement package and joining the GOP ticket, Cheney was lobbying for an end to U.N. sanctions against Hussein.
Of course, American businessmen are nothing if not flexible. 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 after Hussein's ouster.
Clearly, our national interest runs a distant second when pitted
against the rapacious desires of special interests and the politicians
they buy with huge campaign contributions. Oil and gas companies
donated $26.7 million to Bush and his fellow Republicans during the 2000
election and another $18 million in 2002. So does it really come as any
surprise that Cheney's staff held secret meetings in October with
executives from Exxon Mobil, ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips -- and yes,
Halliburton -- to discuss who would get what in a post-Hussein Iraq? As
they say, to the victor -- and the big buck donors -- go the
sp-oil-s.
Here's my bottom line: At a time of war, at what point does
subverting our national security in the name of profitability turn from
ugly business into high treason?
Tribune Media Services
San Francisco Chronicle. 21February 2003
Oil War Profiteers Plan Ahead
WAR TIMES