Letter: Corporations profit from horror of Iraq

Friday, Oct. 19, 2007 | 8:23 a.m.

In my last letter to the Las Vegas Sun, my closing paragraph alluded to our lack of knowledge regarding how the war in Iraq is making some people very rich. I recently discovered a documentary, "Iraq for Sale," and I watched it from beginning to end. I was sad and angry at the same time.

According to the documentary, billions of dollars earmarked for the war in Iraq unfortunately have not been used to protect our troops or to make their ordeal easier. Four corporations, we are told, have been awarded no-bid contracts and contracts that include cost overruns. They are Halliburton, Blackwater, Titan and CACI. As a patriotic American, I believe that a free enterprise system should allow competitors to make a profit, but when there is no competition, the situation appears suspicious.

Even if a person were to defend these corporations by saying they were clever or employed better strategies to bring in these windfalls, their presence in Iraq and the services they have provided are highly questionable. For instance, Halliburton has leased sport utility vehicles to civilian employees, paid for by our taxpayers, at a cost of $7,500 a month. A three-year lease cost us $270,000 per vehicle, and the irony is that most of these vehicles were not used much because the employees live, work and eat in a central location. I also wonder how many Americans know that private companies were involved in the infamous Abu Ghraib torture scandal.

Last , I am not putting the blame on the administration this time. Both Democrats and Republicans in our Congress have reportedly received generous contributions from the corporations involved in Iraq and are returning the favor by turning their backs on the horror of it all.

Ken Anderson, Las Vegas