Is Iraqi's reconstruction benefiting Iraqis? Curtis F.J. Doebbler

Opinion, June 2003, Al-Jazeerah.info

Is Iraqi's reconstruction benefiting Iraqis?

Curtis F.J. Doebbler

6/30/03

Well, let see. America's Bechtel Corporation was awarded a contract worth up
to $680 million for construction. I guess that will hire a lot of American
administrators who could get up to $200,000 a year.

America's (maybe better said Dick Cheney's) Haliburton Company was awarded another hundreds of million dollar contract to fight oil fires and reconstruct oil wells.

America's DynCorp won a multi-million dollar contract to set up courts,
police and a prison system. Stevedoring Services of America won a $4.8
million dollar contract to manage Umm Qasr seaport.

America's Abt Associates Inc. won a $10 million dollar contract to rebuild Iraq's health services. Since $10 million is less than the cost of renewable medical supplies and
basic drugs over a three month periods, it is likely most of this money will
be spent on expensive foreign consultants instead of the Iraqi people, whose health according to the latest UNICEF figures is in a state that is about twice as bad as it was under Saddam Hussein.

America's SkyLink Air and Logistics Support will manage Iraqi's airports for $2.5 million dollars. America's International Resources Group will manage rebuilding and relief
projects for $7 million dollars.

America's Creative Associates International Inc. won a $2 million dollars to support primary and secondary education. And just to emphasize how much America is 'helping' Iraq, America's Research Triangle Institute was awarded a $7.9 million dollar contract to promote
Iraqi participation in reconstruction.

But that's only the larger picture. Here's who's benefiting from America's
war machine (annual revenues in brackets):

Chevron Texaco ($92 billion), Boeing Co. ($54 billion), European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. ($31.3 billion), United Technologies Corp. ($28.2 billion), Lockheed Martin Corp. ($26.8 billion), Honeywell International ($22.2 billion), Electronic Data
System ($21.7 billion), Airbus ($20.3 billion), Johnson Controls Inc. ($20.1
billion), Northrop Grumman Corp. ($17.8 billion), Raytheon Company ($16.9
billion), General Dynamics Corp. ($13.8 billion), BAE System ($12.9
billion), Halliburton Co. ($12.5 billion), Lagardere SCA ($11.7 billion),
General Electric Aircraft Engines ($11.1 billion), Texton Systems ($10.6
billion), Rolls-Royce PLC ($9.2 billion), Agilent Technologies ($6 billion),
SAIC ($5.9 billion), ITT Industries ($4.9 billion), Dynegy Inc. ($4.9
billion), Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. ($4.5 billion), L-3 Communications
Corp. ($4 billion), Emcor Group Inc. ($3.9 billion), Rockwell Collins Inc.
($3.7 billion), Embraer ($2.2 billion), United Defense Industries ($1.72
billion), QINETIQ ($931.3 million), and MEGGITT PLC ($631.3 million).

That's a lot of money American and allied companies are making off of Iraqis
and Afghans and other places we attack.

How much are we paying Iraqis? How much of the profit of these companies
could have been spent promoting peace instead of war?

How much are we helping Iraqis, Afghans, anyone else in the world but
Americans and a few of our allies?

Dr. Curtis F.J. Doebbler is a Washington D.C. attorney.

Note -- Figures are from the Diplomat, a local Washington D.C. newspapers'
special Defense Section that is dated July 2003, which cites the 2003
"Fortune 500" list for the company revenues

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).