Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Dear George,   Iraq has been a boon to free enterprise unseen since the glory days of the Robber Barons.  (Damn!  Did I say “free enterprise?”  Silly me.  I keep forgetting that Corporatist Enterprise buried free enterprise eons ago.  But, I digress.)    The reason Iraq goes on and on without end is that it is not a war; it is a profit center. In truth, the Corporatist State is a frail and delicate creature that requires a continual intravenous infusion of capital to keep it alive.  It especially thrives on public money.   Just as rotting carrion attracts flies, so are Corporatists attracted to fetid pools of capital.  Iraq has proven to be a reeking swamp of unregulated capital begging for exploitation.  The vehicle for this exploitation is the no-bid, cost-plus contract.  These contracts are a Corporatist’s dream.  Corporatists cannot abide risk, which is why they hire legislators to eliminate it.    The City on the Hill of Corporatist Enterprise is Hlliburton.  They’ve plowed the marketplace under and turned it into a parking lot.  I know there has been a lot of talk about their practice of running empty trucks all over Iraq because they are paid by the trip, whether or not the trucks are carrying anything.  Under the terms of the contract, this is perfectly legal.  After all, the purpose of contract law is to legitimize theft.    But, this is mere child’s play compared to their burn pits.[1]  These burn pits, some of them as large as fifteen football fields, are used to burn equipment that has broken down.  It is far more profitable to burn broken equipment than to salvage it for parts to use as spares in other equipment that breaks down.  Why bother to repair a piece of broken equipment if it’s going to be burned anyway?    Halliburton’s genius is their definition of “broken.”  If a truck gets a flat tire, it’s “broken,” because Halliburton gets a cut of every new piece of equipment it buys.  What some might call greed Halliburton calls efficiency.  By burning equipment that would ordinarily be repairable, the company is saving the America taxpayer scads of money by eliminating the need for a costly maintenance infrastructure.     As Huxley taught us, it’s better to spend than to mend.    It also helps to have a friend in a high place.   Your admirer, Belacqua Jones     [1] http://www.smirkingchimp.com/node/7420/print, quoting Robert Greenwald. 6:03:29 AM    comment []

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