Howie Klein: Whose Vision -- Cusack's Or Bush's? The Privatization Of War

Pallets of cash John Cusack's movie about a future fictitious occupation of a fictitious country, Turaqistan, is premised on the privatization of ... well, pretty much everything. In the film a Cheney-like CEO of a Halliburton-like company, Tamerlane, is conducting its own foreign policy -- and war and reconstruction. This morning's NY Times features a story by James Risen on a shocking milestone in Bush's implementation of Cusack's dystopic vision : "The United States this year will have spent $100 billion on contractors in Iraq since the invasion in 2003." That's a lot of taxpayer dollars being spent -- with virtually no supervision or controls on private firms to run the war. In fact one dollar in five is going to private contractors, a great many of whom are contributors to Bush's career and to Republican Party politicians. There are now more contractors in Iraq than there are U.S. troops. And if you recall that little incident of the bridge in Fallujah in which 4 of the hated ... (link)