The gruesome cost of the Iraq occupation continues to escalate
I rose halfway, leaned to the right, and cupped the object. I might as well have plucked volcanic lava from a crater. I could feel the flesh of my palm liquefying. Pain bolted up my arm like an electric current. In one fluid motion, I raised my right arm and started to throw the mass over the side of the vehicle, a short backhand toss. Then everything went dark.
"How I Lost My Hand But Found Myself"
Among my unposted drafts of the last couple of weeks was a passing remembrance of the human toll of the Iraq occupation: More than 2700 American soldiers killed; more than 20,000 wounded.
The bill for future U.S. taxpayers -- our children -- for the Iraq war and the "stay the course" occupation has now reached $379 billion. $97 billion has been approved thus far for Afghanistan operations.
Who's profiting from the war? Take a look at the Center for Public Integrity's database of federal contractors.
A lot of the names in this top-ten list also got no-bid Katrina cleanup contracts worth billions:
Kellogg, Brown & Root (Halliburton)..........$11,431,000,000
Parsons Corp. ..........$5,286,136,252
Fluor Corp. ..........$3,754,964,295
Washington Group International..........$3,133,078,193
Shaw Group/Shaw E & I..........$3,050,749,910
Bechtel Group Inc. ..........$2,829,833,859
Perini Corporation..........$2,525,000,000
Contrack International Inc. ..........$2,325,000,000
Tetra Tech Inc. ..........$1,541,947,671
USA Environmental Inc. ..........$1,541,947,671
If George W. Bush were to do any more to fulfill Osama bin Laden's strategy to cripple the United States financially, he'd be a member of al Qaeda himself. Maybe he should be waterboarded to see what else he plans to do to help Osama bin Laden.
I have a suggestion for Congress. Before they allocate any more funds for the Iraq occupation, require every senior member of the Bush administration -- especially George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Condaleeza Rice -- to spend a day in a military hospital in Baghdad.
As for the fight for freedom and civilization which Bush so often uses to justify his criminally incompetent war strategery, he must have something else in mind. It is evidently now a criminal offense in the minds of the Bush SS to use the word "reprehensible" when speaking to Dick Cheney about the Iraq occupation.
Tags: Hurricane Katrina | Katrina | New Orleans | Louisiana | America's Wetland | Bush is a moron | Impeach Bush | George W Bush | Bush | Worst President Ever | Iraq | Al Qaeda | Osama bin Laden | Terrorism | Rebuild New Orleans | We Are Not OK | Katrina Dissidents | Failure Is Not An Option | Katrina One Year Anniversary
posted by Schroeder @ 5:10 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Great post. Now only if we could get a table about how much these same companies were awarded for Katrina and how much these same companies gave to the Bush Adminstration and/or the Republican Party. These three tables would be very interesting sitting side by side by side. Great work, thanks again.
You're complaining about the money? Didn't Richard Armitage himself say in response to the contracts question that it's "the better part of wisdom"?
That said, what I'd really like an accounting of is what happened to that $9 billion (or whatever it was), never mind the unspoken-for trillions over the past five years of Pentagon whoring.
Tara: Let us know if you come down. I'm sure we'd be happy to take you on what John Waters called "the horror tour." Or, you know, we can at least tell you where to eat.
Tara, that's very thoughtful of you.
I'd like to solicit bloggers to see if they have a longer-term interest in sustaining an effort that might be independent of the Arabi Wrecking Krewe. We could work with them, or do our own projects. There seems to be a communication and scheduling breakdown with them. It's a great group, but we're always dependent upon them to do housegutting because they have the tools.
Thanks, but don't do anything just yet. Furthermore, I have to say I think there really ought to be a tool lending library that operates *outside* of the Lower Ninth Ward where, apparently, it's the only place Common Ground is loaning their tools.
Rob, guys like Armitage are sitting on their better parts of wisdom.
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