Iraq for Sale

Finally got a chance to see this film tonight, as well as make some calls for Patrick Murphy (randomly, my house party was calling his district, where I'm from! I was looking at the numbers thinking I'd end up getting my old science teacher on the phone).

While early Robert Greenwald pictures were pretty rudimentary, this one is his best yet, the most accomplished, the most polished, the most professional. The story of war profiteering in Iraq is tragically under-reported. Our taxpayer money to fund this war is actually going to benefit major corporate defense contractors, all of whom have their tentacles deep into the halls of power in Washington. Blackwater, CACI/Titan, Parsons, Halliburton KBR, Bechtel: they are making billions off of the dead and wounded, with no accountability, no oversight, nothing.

When people say we have 140,000 troops in Iraq, that number is too low by half. All of the logistical support jobs that used to be done by the military are being done by contractors, because of the mantra that privatization is a universal good. The cooks, the mechanics, the truck drivers, the cleanup crews, all are made up of private employees. They're being paid three times what our soldiers are paid, set up in lavish accomodations while our soldiers sleep on cots in vermin-infested tents. They eat the finest food while our soldiers are practically poisoned from substandard water treatment. Because of cost-plus billing (meaning the more that contractors spend, the more profit they make), $85,000 vehicles are burned because they have a flat tire, the military is charged $100 to wash a bag of laundry (which they don't wash). And on and on. KBR overbilled the US government by over a billion dollars in 2005 alone. No investigation has been made from the Congress.

My question is, at what point are the soldiers sub-contracted as well? Some of them already are. The private security personnel are there. The transportation personnel are there. The interrogation personnel are there. We're pretty much this close to a full-blown mercenary army anyway. How soon before we go all the way?

We need a Democratic Congress because we need meaningful oversight into this waste, fraud and abuse being perpetrated by unaccountable entities on the US taxpayers. We should expect nothing less from our government than to spend our money wisely. This film in urgently recommended because it's so important to bear out the facts about those who are getting rich while hundreds of thousands die for a war of choice.