INFOGRAPHIC TAKEDOWN: I hate Cheney with a loathing, and yet sometimes I see an infographic so misinformed I find myself making a few comments that almost sound friendly towards him. 1) How was it his Halliburton? His shares were in a blind trust--if he even had any at that point in time he wouldnt have known. 2) And while Ive got an warm spot in my heart for all my past employers, theres no frickin way thatd influence my policy were I in office. Ill make the same assumption about any one in public service until I see solid evidence to the contrary, and the Woodward books make clear the war was GWs baby, not Cheneys. 3) military is very capable but famously expensive: had the Pentagon enough staff to discharge these duties do you think it would have been less than 39 billion? Or more? 4) But the REAL reason Halliburton and other contractors did great out the Iraq war is that after the Cold War, we chose (rightly) to pocket the Peace Dividend. We cut military capabilities down to the bone, and saved money at that point, knowing that wed have to pay contractors to do jobs away from the gun barrels. That savings was largely responsible for the good-time 90s. Halliburton and company spent a long time having no war and no customer, and generally not having much income, before they suddenly had it all. Anyone whos vocal about how much they made in the 00s surely was complaining how little they were making in the 90s, right? Wrong? To which Ill add 5) Its not as if all that money was profit. much of its income was given out as excellent salaries to people to do awful jobs. You and I could have signed up but frankly the work was too awful for me even for six-digit contracts.
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 08:48:32 +0000