Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner in Iraq. Yes, I know
we’re still fighting. But that’s just a formality. The war has
already been won. The conquering heroes are not generals in
fatigues but CEOs in suits, and the shock troops are not an
advance guard of commandos but legions of lobbyists.
The Bush administration is currently in the process of doling
out more than $1.5 billion in government contracts to American
companies lining up to cash in on the rebuilding of postwar Iraq.
So, bombs away! The more destruction the better at least for the
lucky few in the rebuilding business.
The United Nations has traditionally overseen the
reconstruction of war zones like Afghanistan or Kosovo. But in
keeping with its unilateral, the-world-is-our-sandbox approach to
this invasion, the White House has decided to nail a “Made in the
USA” sign on this Iraqi fixer-upper. Postwar Iraq will be rebuilt
using red, white, and blueprints.
Talk about advance planning: Even as the people of Iraq gird
themselves for the thousands of bombs raining down on them, the
administration is already picking and choosing who will be given
the lucrative job of cleaning up the rubble. Postwar rebuilding
is a solitary bright spot in our own carpet-bombed economy.
To further expedite matters, the war-powers-that-be invoked
“urgent circumstances” clauses that allowed them to subvert the
requisite competitive bidding process the free market be damned
and invited a select group of companies to bid on the rebuilding
projects. No British companies were included, which has left many
of them seething and meeting with government officials in London
to find out where they stand.
So just which companies were given first crack at the
post-Saddam spoils?
Well, given Team Bush’s track record, it will probably not
fill you with “shock and awe” to learn that the common
denominator among the chosen few is a proven willingness to make
large campaign donations to the Grand Old Party. Between them,
the bidders a quartet of well-connected corporate consortiums
that includes the Bechtel Group, Fluor Corp., and, of course,
Vice President Cheney’s old cronies at Halliburton have donated a
combined $2.8 million over the past two election cycles, 68
percent of which went to Republicans.
The insider track given these fat-cat donors proves afresh
that splurging on a politician is one of the soundest and safest
investments you can make. Where else will a $2.8 million ante
offer you a one-in-four shot at raking in a $1.5 billion
payoff?
And that $1.5 billion is just for starters. The president is
planning to give post-Saddam Iraq an extreme makeover a
wide-ranging overhaul that will include the transformation of the
country’s educational, health-care, and banking systems all
funded by taxpayer dollars and administered by private U.S.
contractors. Think of it as a Marshall Plan for profit.
“The administration’s goal,” reads one of the reconstruction
contracts that are up for bids, “is to provide tangible evidence
to the people of Iraq that the U.S. will support efforts to bring
the country to political security and economic prosperity.”
As a first step toward Iraqi prosperity, the president’s
ambitious postwar plan earmarks $100 million to ensure that
Iraq’s 25,000 schools have all the supplies and support necessary
to “function at a standard level of quality” including books and
supplies for 4.1 million Iraqi schoolchildren.
I’m sure those schools in Oregon that are being forced to shut
down a month early due to inadequate funding or the low-income
students in California who are suing the state in a desperate
effort to obtain adequate textbooks and qualified teachers of
their own would love to see the same kind of “tangible evidence”
of President Bush’s support.
The same goes for our flat-lining public health-care system.
While more than a million poor Americans are about to lose their
access to publicly funded medical care, the president is in the
market for a corporate contractor to oversee a $100 million
upgrade of Iraq’s hospitals and clinics.
And the White House has announced its intention to redesign
Iraq’s financial rules and banking system after it bombs the
country halfway to oblivion. Too bad the administration keeps
watering down reforms for the banking system here at home.
That’s another way corporate America is profiting from the
war. With all eyes on Iraq, few are paying attention to how
little is being done to reform and redesign our own financial
rules.
The new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission,
for instance, is getting away with an enforcement regime every
bit as limp as that of his predecessor, the supremely spineless
Harvey Pitt.
Last week, in his first congressional testimony since assuming
control of the watchdog agency, William Donaldson made it clear
that, despite a massive increase in the SEC’s budget, we
shouldn’t expect too much in the way of fundamental reform
stressing that one of his top priorities would be boosting the
morale of the agency.
I don’t know about you, but I would feel a whole lot better if
he’d made boosting the morale of a badly burned public “Job No.
1.” Tossing a slew of corporate crooks in the slammer would be a
good start.
Maybe America’s beleaguered investors should band together
with this country’s “left behind” schoolchildren and start
stockpiling a couple of plywood drones with overly long
wingspans, some high-strength aluminum tubes, and a few discarded
canisters of chemical gas.
Apparently, that’s the only way to get this administration’s
attention.
Arianna Huffington is the author of Pigs at the Trough:
How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption Are Undermining
America.
