<![CDATA[
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
Corporate America Divvies Up The Post-Saddam Spoils<br><br>By Arianna Huffington<br><br>Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a winner in Iraq. Yes, I know that<br>the first smart bomb has yet to be dropped on Baghdad. But that's<br>just a formality. The war has already been won. The conquering<br>heroes are not generals in fatigues but CEOs in suits, and the<br>shock troops are not an advance guard of commandos but legions of<br>lobbyists.<br><br>The Bush administration is currently in the process of doling out<br>over $1.5 billion in government contracts to American companies<br>lining up to cash in on the rebuilding of postwar Iraq. So bombs<br>away! The more destruction the better -- at least for the lucky<br>few in the rebuilding business.<br><br>The United Nations has traditionally overseen the reconstruction<br>of war zones like Afghanistan or Kosovo. But in keeping with its<br>unilateral, the-world-is-our-sandbox approach to this invasion,<br>the White House has decided to nail a "Made in the USA" sign on<br>this Iraqi fixer-upper. Postwar Iraq will be rebuilt using red,<br>white, and blueprints.<br><br>Talk about advance planning: Even as the people of Iraq are<br>girding themselves for the thousands of bombs expected to rain<br>down on them during the first 24 hours of the attack, the<br>administration is already picking and choosing who will be given<br>the lucrative job of cleaning up the rubble. Postwar rebuilding<br>is a solitary bright spot in our own carpet-bombed economy.<br><br>To further expedite matters, the war-powers-that-be invoked<br>"urgent circumstances" clauses that allowed them to subvert the<br>requisite competitive bidding process -- the free market be<br>damned -- and invite a select group of companies to bid on the<br>rebuilding projects. No British companies were included, which<br>has left many of them seething and meeting with government<br>officials in London to find out where they stand.<br><br>So just which companies were given first crack at the post-Saddam<br>spoils?<br><br>Well, given Team Bush's track record, it will probably not fill<br>you with "shock and awe" to learn that the common denominator<br>among the chosen few is a proven willingness to make large<br>campaign donations to the Grand Old Party. Between them, the<br>bidders -- a quartet of well-connected corporate consortiums that<br>includes Bechtel Group, Fluor Corp., and, of course, Vice<br>President Cheney's old cronies at Halliburton -- have donated a<br>combined $2.8 million over the past two election cycles, 68<br>percent of which went to Republicans.<br><br>The insider track given these fat cat donors proves afresh that<br>splurging on a politician is one of the soundest and safest<br>investments you can make. Where else will a $2.8 million ante<br>offer you a one-in-four shot at raking in a $1.5 billion payoff?<br><br>And that $1.5 billion is just for starters. The president is<br>planning to give post-Saddam Iraq an extreme makeover -- a<br>wide-ranging overhaul that will include the transformation of the<br>country's educational, health-care, and banking systems -- all<br>funded by taxpayer dollars and administered by private U.S.<br>contractors. Think of it as a for-profit Marshall Plan.<br><br>"The administration's goal," reads one of the reconstruction<br>contracts that are up for bids, "is to provide tangible evidence<br>to the people of Iraq that the U.S. will support efforts to bring<br>the country to political security and economic prosperity."<br><br>As a first step toward Iraqi prosperity, the president's<br>ambitious postwar plan earmarks $100 million to ensure that<br>Iraq's 25,000 schools have all the supplies and support necessary<br>to "function at a standard level of quality" -- including books<br>and supplies for 4.1 million Iraqi schoolchildren.<br><br>I'm sure those schools in Oregon that are being forced to shut<br>down a month early due to inadequate funding, or the low-income<br>students in California who are suing the state in a desperate<br>effort to obtain adequate textbooks and qualified teachers of<br>their own, would love to see the same kind of "tangible evidence"<br>of President Bush's support.<br><br>The same goes for our flatlining public health-care system. While<br>more than a million poor Americans are about to lose their access<br>to publicly funded medical care, the president is in the market<br>for a corporate contractor to oversee a $100 million upgrade of<br>Iraq's hospitals and clinics.<br><br>And the White House has announced its intention to redesign<br>Iraq's financial rules and banking system after it bombs the<br>country halfway to oblivion. Too bad the administration keeps<br>watering down reforms for the financial rules and banking system<br>here at home.<br><br>That's another way corporate America is profiting from the<br>looming war. With all eyes on Iraq, few are paying attention to<br>how little is being done to reform and redesign our own financial<br>rules.<br><br>The new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, for<br>instance, is getting away with an enforcement regime every bit as<br>limp as that of his predecessor, the supremely spineless Harvey<br>Pitt.<br><br>Last week, in his first congressional testimony since assuming<br>control of the watchdog agency, William Donaldson made it clear<br>that, despite a massive increase in the SEC's budget, we<br>shouldn't expect too much in the way of fundamental reform --<br>stressing that one of his top priorities would be boosting the<br>morale of the agency.<br><br>I don't know about you, but I would feel a whole lot better if<br>he'd made boosting the morale of a badly burned public Job No. 1.<br>Tossing a slew of corporate crooks in the slammer would be a good<br>start.<br><br>Maybe America's beleaguered investors should band together with<br>this country's "left behind" schoolchildren and start stockpiling<br>a couple of plywood drones with overly long wingspans, some<br>high-strength aluminum tubes, and a few discarded canisters of<br>chemical gas.<br><br>Apparently, that's the only way to get this administration's<br>attention. ------<br>Arianna Huffington is the author of "Pigs at the Trough: How<br>Corporate Greed and Political Corruption are Undermining<br>America." For information on the book, visit<br>www.PigsAtTheTrough.com<br><br>If you have questions or comments, contact Arianna at<br>ariannaariannaonline.com<br><br>To subscribe/unsubscribe, please visit<br>www.ariannaonline.com/columns/maillist.html<br><br><br> <b on></b>
</body>
]]>