Q But Mr. Vice President, getting from there to here, 4,500 Americans have died, at least 100,000 Iraqis have died. Has it been worth that?
CHENEY: I think so.
Dick Cheney
Interview with Jim Lehrer
January 14, 2009
I guess the son of bitch was telling the truth for once. It WAS worth it -- to him and his cronies.
Just consider it an extreme example of the modern American practice of socializing the risks and privatizing the profits.
In December 2001, Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, secured a 10-year deal known as the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP), from the Pentagon. The contract is a "cost-plus-award-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity service" which basically means that the federal government has an open-ended mandate and budget to send Brown and Root anywhere in the world to run military operations for a profit.
CorpWatch
Halliburton Makes a Killing on Iraq War
March 20, 2003
Halliburton says 15 percent of its revenue last year came from work in Iraq. That money came mainly from two contracts with KBR, formerly known as Kellogg, Brown & Root . . . . Halliburton reported making $3.6 billion in revenue from Iraq contracts last year. Executives say the company is taking in about $1 billion a month from its work in Iraq, bringing its total revenue to about $6 billion.
Associated Press
Iraq: Halliburton Continues to Profit
March 30, 2004
Halliburton, the second biggest oilfield service company in the world, on Thursday said work in Iraq had boosted revenue as it swung from a loss to record second-quarter net income of $26m, or 6 cents a share, compared with the year-earlier period.
The Houston-based company credited the quarter's 11 per cent rise in revenue, to $3.6bn, largely to increased activity in its Engineering and Construction Group (ECG) projects, including government services work in the Middle East.
Financial Times
Halliburton Profits Skyrocket On Iraq Deals
July 31, 2005
The largest beneficiary of reconstruction work in Iraq has been KBR (Kellogg, Brown & Root), a division of US giant Halliburton, which to date has secured contracts in Iraq worth $13bn (£7bn), including an uncontested $7bn contract to rebuild Iraq's oil infrastructure.
The Independent
Blood and oil: How the West will profit from Iraq's most precious commodity
January 7, 2007