Iraq War Profiteers: 25 Companies Who Benefit From The War

The Iraq war is many things to different people. It is called a strategic blunder and a monstrous injustice and sometimes even a patriotic mission, much to the chagrin of rational human beings. For many big companies, however, the war is something far different: a lucrative cash-cow. The years-long, ongoing military effort has resurrected fears of the so-called "military-industrial complex." Media pundits are outraged at private companies scooping up huge, no-questions-asked contracts to manufacture weapons, rebuild infrastructure, or anything else the government deems necessary to win (or plant its flag in Iraq). No matter what your stance on the war, it pays to know where your tax dollars are being spent.

Following is a detailed rundown of the 25 companies squeezing the most profit from this controversial conflict.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Sundialsvc4]

This article is actually quite "sanitized." All of the industries here, with a couple of minor exceptions, are "just like what you'd have in your neighborhood." Cleaning stuff up, building infrastructure, etc. Stuff that you really might not object to.

Let's talk about ... mercenaries. Illegal under International law but there they are.

Let's talk about ... a $2-trillion a year industry that sells weapons and materiel to BOTH sides of a conflict.

Let's talk about ... the direct and close links between these companies and the members of all three Branches of our Government.

[Sundialsvc4]

The only time when you can regard "war" as "profitable" is when you have no conscience, no heart, and no soul. That is to say, when you are neither man nor woman, but something horribly different ... something that must be expunged from civilized society as being the greatest possible threat to it. Such a non-man, if left to his or her own devices, will inflict unspeakable harm to all of society while studiously shielding themselves and their own families from it. Feeling no damage to themselves, they count as nothing the damage they inflict upon a million others.

[Sundialsvc4]

Let's see what a gentleman who wore F-I-V-E stars on his General's lapel had to say:

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

"Farming looks mighty easy when your plow's a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the corn field."

"[...] There are signs that tyranny is in trouble and reminders that its structure is as brittle as its surface is hard."

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity."

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. "

"Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him. "

"The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible [....] on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office. "

"The clearest way to show what the rule of law means to us in everyday life is to recall what has happened when there is no rule of law. "

[JimMan35]

WHY the picture of Michael Milken on the Parsons entry? I can't find a connection between Mr. Milken and Parsons, except both are based in Southern California. What gives there?

[joebiz]

While the Admin rattled sabers at Iran, Halliburton sold it nuclear technology.

http://www.mondovista.com/halliburton.html

[sowhatdemos]

This list makes me sick. Why these corporate thieves aren't in jail already boggles the mind. Plus all this money is borrowed from China for the taxpayer to absorb the cost with interest. Why regular folks vote for these reThugs is beyond me. Is stupidity a disease?

[speakingtruth2power]

Hate Radio and Propaganda TV are deployed by the corpo ate tusks, AKZ fast cysts.

It's not stupidity, it's a kabul, closely following the 14 pints over a 40 yr con spire acy.

[WIpatriot]

Possibly, but fascism certainly is.

[americaforme]

Whats the pay off for all that money, we have been so financialy drained, it disgust me.. Now we drop down. pull out. It torques my tree that the middle East gets all those freebys...The loss of life, eco. belly up, six years of unabatted rage at Bush&Co...I think America is Mentaly Ill, I hate getting the financial shaft. We get screwed in outsourcing, the banking system destroys our economy, our fearless leaders restore banks losses from fradulant loans, via home loans, or fradulant credit lines using the US Post office to complete their usury crimes...Speculations on Wall Street...I cant see a damn thing good about these pirate thieves.

[Bettysdad]

Other than perfume and sex toys, I can't think of anything the military doesn't buy.

[Podewumun]

Just a drop in the bucket I'm afraid. Every so often I like to pull up the DOD Contracts site to see what our war machine has spent that day.
Just yesterday, July 24, 2008, the DOD awarded contracts totalling $251,554,789. Slow day.
On June 26, 2008, they awarded contracts totalling $773,427,188. That's right, almost three-quarters of a billions dollars in ONE DAY.

http://www.defenselink.mil/contracts/

Pick a day at random, tally the contracts up and prepare to be shocked.

[Podewumun]

UPDATE

Today, July 25, 2008, DOD contracts totalled $2,301,696,583.00.

Almost TWO and a HALF BILLION DOLLARS.

[jupitor]

Yes, America know you know why Mccain/Bush/Channey wants to keep the Iraq war a going!