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War is a Racket
“War is a racket,” wrote retired U.S. Marine Maj. Gen. Smedley D. Butler, in 1935. That statement, which is also the title of his short book on war profiteering, rings true today. One courageous civil servant just won a battle to hold war profiteers accountable. Her name is Bunnatine “Bunny” Greenhouse. She blew the whistle when her employer, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, gave a no-bid $7 billion contract to the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) as the invasion of Iraq was about to commence. She was doing her job, trying to ensure a competitive bidding process would save the U.S. government money. For that, she was forced out of her senior position, demoted and harassed.
Subcontractors of Kellogg, Brown and Root work on a project at Camp Fallujah in 2008. (U.S. Marine Corps / Lance Cpl. Adam J. Root)
Just this week, after waging a legal battle for more than half a decade, Bunny Greenhouse won. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers settled with Greenhouse for $970,000, representing full restitution for lost wages, compensatory damages and attorneys’ fees.
Her “offense” was to challenge a no-bid, $7 billion+ contract to KBR. It was weeks before the expected invasion of Iraq, in 2003, and Bush military planners predicted Saddam Hussein would blow up Iraqi oilfields, as happened with the U.S. invasion in 1991. The project, dubbed “Restore Iraqi Oil,” or RIO, was created so that oilfield fires would be extinguished. KBR was owned then by Halliburton, whose CEO until 2000 was none other than then-Vice President Dick Cheney. KBR was the only company invited to bid.
Bunny Greenhouse told her superiors that the process was illegal. She was overridden. She said the decision to grant the contract to KBR came from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, run by VP Cheney’s close friend, Donald Rumsfeld.
As Bunny Greenhouse told a congressional committee, “I can unequivocally state that the abuse related to contracts awarded to KBR represents the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career."
The oilfields were not set ablaze. Nevertheless, KBR was allowed to retool its $7 billion no-bid contract, to provide gasoline and other logistical support to the occupation forces. The contract was so-called cost-plus, which means KBR was not on the hook to provide services at a set price. Rather, it could charge its cost, plus a fixed percentage as profit. The more KBR charged, the more profit it made.
As the chief procurement officer, Greenhouse’s signature was required on all contracts valued at more than $10 million. Soon after testifying about the egregious RIO contract, she was demoted, stripped of her top-secret clearance and began receiving the lowest performance ratings. Before blowing the whistle, she had received the highest ratings. Ultimately, she left work, facing an unbearably hostile workplace.
After years of litigation, attorney Michael Kohn, president of the National Whistleblowers Center, brought the case to a settlement. He said: “Bunny Greenhouse risked her job and career when she objected to the gross waste of federal taxpayer dollars and illegal contracting practices at the Army Corps of Engineers. She had the courage to stand alone and challenge powerful special interests. She exposed a corrupt contracting environment where casual and clubby contracting practices were the norm. Her courage led to sweeping legal reforms that will forever halt the gross abuse she had the courage to expose.”
The National Whistleblowers Center’s executive director, Stephen Kohn (brother of Michael Kohn) told me: “Federal employees have a very, very hard time blowing the whistle. So whenever the government is forced to pay full damages for all back pay, all compensatory damages, all attorneys’ fees, that’s a major victory. I hope it’s a turning point. The case was hard-fought. It should never have had to been filed. Bunny did the right thing.”
According to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joe Stiglitz, the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan alone will exceed $5 trillion. With a cost like this, why isn’t war central to the debate over the national debt?
Two-time Congressional Medal of Honor winner Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler had it right 75 years ago when he said of war: “It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious [racket]. ... It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives ... It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many.”
As President Barack Obama and Congress claim it is Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security that are breaking the budget, people should demand that they stop paying for war.
Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
35 Comments so far
Show AllAmy,
In 2003, I marched against the war in Seattle, my son marched in NY, our French exchange student marched in Paris, and our Equatorial Guinean student in Spain.
The world's largest peace demonstration was simply ignored. I also watched Bunateen Greenhouse testify at a congressional hearing and was much inspired by her courage and presence in front of the good ole' boys club. Congratulations to her and to her tenacity. Someday, I hope Bush, Rumsfeld, and Cheney will be called to account for all of the suffering and death they have caused. I'm haunted by Bush laughingly looking for weapons of mass destruction under a table at a press conference, and a mother shrieking in emotional agony at a camera in Iraq shortly after the bombing commenced: "This is Bush's democracy??!!!!" Forgive me if I just feel a little powerless in the face of your urging, to do much of anything to stop the wars. I've lost faith in our country and its leaders completely.
I was there with you in Seattle.
I'll never forget February 15, 2003. And critics say it didn't work, but then my rebuttal is, what if everyone was out in the streets?
Unfortunately too many people are unwilling to join the huddled masses. I heard Dr. Steven Perry--CNN education guru--say the other day 'that you can all go do that marching; I'm not into that.' as if he was above protesting in the streets. Or I have heard other people say that they are devoted to taking care of their family, as if civic activity is contemptible, beneath them, unnecessary and not relevant to their family life.
I know so many people who are not engaged and it is quite disheartening. I asked a family member the other day about what they thought about the debt ceiling negotiations and their response was, "I don't know. What is going on?"
Thank you for your post, despite the fact I almost get physically queasy every time I think of Bush joking about WMD. Very depressing, indeed.
As for Goodman's piece, I don't understand why she asks why military budgets aren't central to debt talks when she already answers it, "War is a racket." The wars cost $5 trillion, but it is a socialist jobs program that works very effectively stimulating the economy. I keep reading people touting this $5 trillion "cost" figure with no Chalmers Johnson, Brave New Films or Eugene Jarecki analysis on the downside. Where is the sunblock the troops need going to come from? How about the coca-cola? How much for a six-pack? $45?
Jarecki's book "The American Way of War" is an excellent read. He discusses how I think it was Boeing or Northrup Grumman has plants building different parts of military machines or weaponry in all the different states of the union so that they can garner the majority's votes on defense and war spending. I forget what the strategy is called. What legislator is willing to lose jobs in his or her district?
I think the more important debt question for Amy is, How can we effectively transfer jobs over from military industrial complex into a green peace economy?
I was there in San Francisco and surrounded by the largest group of people I have ever been part of. There were an estimated 10 million people around the world who marched against the invasion. What happened? We were minimally covered by the MSM and George W. Bush arrogantly dismissed us a "focus group". I have a real fantasy about that war criminal and his fellow mongers in that they will finally go to prison for their great crimes. That is the country I want to live in.
Keep the military industrial complex but bring them home. Bring the troupes home and teach them how to install photovoltaic panels on every military base. Next they can work on all public schools. After public schools they can work on public housing. Reduce by a $100 the amount large Section 8 facilities get for each renter and use this money to build photovoltaic panel on large public housing building. Stop HEAP check from going directly to Section 8 renters each month. That is renters who live in these public housing complexes. I live in a very cloudy city. Photovoltaic’s work here.
ontheres and bdrugge: At the time that you marched I was stuck in a little town in the deep south, without any resources whatsoever, and it was wonderful to see all of you protesting the war! It meant a lot to me. Thank you.
I would just add that the many who carry out the war are poor who are actually fighting to transfer wealth from people like themselves to the rich few. Broken bodies, scarred minds are considered collateral damage, and besides, it only happens to the little people.
"According to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joe Stiglitz, the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan alone will exceed $5 billion."
I think that should be $5 TRILLION, not $5 billion.
I was outraged by that little typo myself. Thanks for pointing it out.
But it's hard to put a number on the financial cost. Remember Rumsfield telling Congress that the Pentagon couldn't account for 2.3 trillion? The problem is, believe it or not, a shortage of competent accountants.
Hardly anyone remembers Rumsfeld saying that, because he (very conveniently) said it on 9/10/2001 and all the news outlets were focused on something else the next day.
war is indeed a racket as smedley butler wrote
"Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881 – June 21, 1940), nicknamed "The Fighting Quaker" and "Old Gimlet Eye", was a Major General in the U.S. Marine Corps, and at the time of his death the most decorated Marine in U.S. history"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler
the bush family have been raking in their fortune through the war game for 100 years - nwo scum is what they are nothing less
start with samuel bush
" In early 1918, during the First World War, his father, Samuel Prescott Bush, was recommended by Bernard Baruch to President Wilson and he was appointed as Chief of the Ordnance, Small Arms and Ammunition of the War Industries Board.
This was a very important position as it allowed Sam Bush to allocate production contracts to the appropriate Anglo-American elite players in the war industries. This had previously been accomplished since 1915 by other private methods prior to war being declared."
http://www.thedailybell.com/floatWindow.cfm?id=2649
then there is prescott bush - informally known as the "banker to the nazis"
"George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.
The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.
His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
ghw bush was and is a fucking scum bag and his son w is a brain lesioned alcoholic awol bag of shit
these are the folks who make the money - along with the biggest war profiteerers of all time - the rothschilds
"We can trace the roots of this antipathy as far back as the 19th century when the Rothschilds were the supreme financiers of the world. At that time, the family was already being accused of financing wars for their own financial gain
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-rothschild-gang-shadow-conspiracy-or-rumor-2011-6
there's a reason why you never see rich kids or politicians kids fighting wars - its bad for your health
and who loves war more than obummer - he's got 6 of them going on right now
that's 6 scams at once
I read some years ago that in the time that GHW Bush left office in 1993 until about 2000 that he had DOUBLED the Bush family fortune, no doubt partly because of his membership in the Carlyle Group. The Bushes are a breathtakingly corrupt and immoral clan. They have an arrogant and inhuman disregard for what they do to other people. Barbara Bush's infamous comment on the eve of the Iraq invasion by her sociopathic son about the projected casualties and destruction that would result was, "Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? It's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?" The Bushes are a truly perverted "dynasty" that should have been kept away from any political office. They are the epitome of that statement from Balzac (who knew a thing or two about human behavior) that "Behind every great fortune, there is a great crime."
"As President Barack Obama and Congress claim it is Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security that are breaking the budget, people should demand that they stop paying for war." Demand? Really? What's an effective way to do that, Amy?
selectively paying federale' taxes, seems reasonable to me.
Stop these fucking WARS!
I got this covered. I actually just got done emailing my two senators and representative that I want them to extend the debt ceiling, raise taxes on the rich, and stop the wars. I think we're now good to go on getting out of Iraqastan...
Thanks Tom. :kisses:
How do we do it? By all means necessary, that's how: writing and calling Congress, antiwar demonstrations, civil disobedience, voting for antiwar candidates, acts of civil disobedience, refusing to pay taxes, boycotting corporations (like GE) who are military contractors, explaining to anyone who'll listen that military expenditures and corporate domination are sucking the life out of our country, writing articles like Amy does, and anything else we can think of.
We must each act in the ways we think are best and most effective, and take strength from the fact that others are on our side rather than condemning anyone who doesn't agree with us on every point or who chooses different forms of activism than we do (a problem that's all too common on the Left). We must speak out and refuse to allow the government frighten us into relinquishing our freedoms. Most important of all, we must never fall into the defeatist trap of thinking that we have no power, an idea that's only true if we believe it.
I always wondered what happened to Ms. Greenhouse. It's nice to hear that the good guys win sometimes. Just remember this the next time someone is complaining about gov't bureaucrats.
We HAVE been demanding that we stop paying for war since 1968.
The War Criminals in D.C. have always refused to listen to us.
It's time to shut down the U.S. Murder Machine.
Stay Home Friday, July 29.
If you can, stay home from work and do not go shopping.
Call Congress and tell them:
HANDS OFF OUR SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE & MEDICAID!
TAX THE RICH AND CORPORATIONS!
END THE WARS AND BRING OUR TROOPS AND DOLLARS HOME!
Contact Congress: 202-224-3121
Contact Obama: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER
(202) 225-0600
EMAIL: http://www.speaker.gov/Contact/
SENATE MAJORITY LEADER HARRY REID
Phone: 202-224-3542
EMAIL: http://reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
SENATE MINORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL
Phone: (202) 224-2541
EMAIL: http://mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactForm
Outstanding article Amy. Thank you for sharing!
I don't think calling will change a thing. These people are beyond being swayed by anything other than fear and money. I say throw the whole lot in jail--every Washington politician since 2000--then sort out the two or three who are not guilty of any crimes against humanity, try the rest and hang the guilty.
Yes, doing nothing is always so much better than doing something. Plus, your "plan" is so unrealistic, designed only to create apathy, that when nothing at all happens will have to feel anything about it at all! It's a win/win for the status quo.
Did anyone notice that Amy's idea of "winning" is a little skewed? Ms. Greenhouse got $970,000, which included lawyers' fees and back pay for probably at least 5 years. Let's call it $1 million. But KBR got $7 billion. And each billion is a thousand millions. So who won? I think Ms. Greenhouse got hosed all around and the legal system patted KBR on the head.
Thank you. The article also doesn't say that she received anything to compensate for the debt incurred in 5 years of no income. Nothing about punitive damages, At least she has something for her trouble and being vilified these past years.
As a former Marine and admirer of General Smedley D. Butler this 17 minute video on ‘You Tube’ about the futility of petitioning government put everything into perspective for me (maybe you too?) : Joe Stack and the IRS - The Impact of Error http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SH7jeWpmhI
USMC 1960-65
Cuban Missile Crises GTMO 1962
Vietnam 1964
Dominican Republic Invasion 1965
The president of the National Whistleblowers Center said, "...Her courage led to sweeping legal reforms that will forever halt the gross abuse she had the courage to expose.”
I don't know what that guy was smoking but it sure must've been good!
Unfortunately, the courage and principles of a Smedley Butler are quite rare. To rise to the rank of General requires a sustained commitment to the idea of the military as a means of advancing foreign policy AND obeying a President and Congress that is wrong or even lying about the need to invade. In fact, we have seen numerous examples of generals who are even more rabid in what they would do to engage the GWOT and achieve the military's fantasy of "Full Spectrum Dominance". One exception was General Eric Shinseki who told Bush and Rumsfeld that it would require far more troops to "stabilize" Iraq after the invasion. His reward for telling it like it was? He was fast-tracked into retirement. Those war criminals in the Bush Regime couldn't have any contrarian voices to their fantasy about how easy and inexpensive (remember that Wolfowitz said that it wouldn't cost us anything because the Iraq oil would cover it!) it would be to secure Iraq. Eight YEARS later we are still there with 50,000 troops, a similar number of mercenaries (a disturbing development that is rarely discussed in the MSM) and with an unexpressed commitment to staying there for the foreseeable future, no matter what has to be told to the Amurkin people who are paying for this game of geopolitical/resource dominance. I can only imagine that Butler, who honestly described himself as a "bagman for Wall Street", would have resigned his commission instead of being part of this but only after telling the powers that be what a danger they were to the very idea of democracy in the United States.
The military-industrial complex requires wars which requires enemies which requires propagandist media. Don't expect opposition from the media, Democratic and Republican politicians, nor those unions whose members benefit, no matter the borrowing costs to a bankrupt nation supposedly concerned about its national debt.
i suppose we do need to do what we can- i send out the pertitioins, sign the letters, march, carry a sign- but it's pitiful how we have no real way to change it.
the world wide demonstration against starting the Iraq war got 10, 000,000 people marching all over the world. it felt great until the next morning. A reporter asked bush on live tv what he thought. W blinked his eyes, that familiar uncomprehending look, and said it was like a focus group. I just about died watching this. i'm thinking of all ten million marchers, and this is all we get? a efffing focus group?
Along with Amy Goodman President warned against the industrial-military complex. Young people die and are mutilated so a few can enrich themselves.
Keep the military industrial complex but bring it home. Bring the troupes home and teach them how to install photovoltaic panels on every military base. Next they can work on all public schools. After public schools they can work on public housing. Reduce by a $100 the amount large Section 8 facilities get for each renter and use this money to build photovoltaic panel on large public housing building. Stop HEAP check from going directly to Section 8 renters each month. That is renters who live in these public housing complexes. I live in a very cloudy city. Photovoltaic’s work here.
This article by Amy Goodman is well & good -BUT- The issue I have w Amy & DemocracyNow! [DN!] right now is how she & DN! have dealt w the FUK-US [French, US, UK] NATO assault on Libya. Although DN! hasn't been an out-right FOX like cheer-leader for the war... they haven't clearly condemned it either. They have on the other hand- repeatedly made reports on the alleged 'Evils of Khadaffi' which the Obama Admin, Cameron, Sarkozy, NATO & MSNM New outlets have used to justify their outrageous attack on a small African Nation IE: the dubious claims that 'Khadaffi fed his troops viagra for mass rapes'.., 'Khadaffi's was going to slaughter civillians' - even though it was obvious that this was an armed rebellion [& not just w small-arms but w 50 caliber & anti- aircraft & tank gun cannons; - RPGs, etc] & no firm evidence of deliberate wholesale slaughter of civillian has been presented;- 'Khadaffi's African Mercenaries' even though Libya is IN AFRICA & many Libyans ARE Black & Libya had a large Black African migrant work force - While NO reports on allegations that the AL-CIAeada inspired rebels have been targeting Blacks [including Black Libyans] for slaughter & ethnic cleasing; - 'Khadaffi's a Tyrrant' but no reports that under Khadaffi Libyan's enjoyed the highest standard of living in all Africa & most other Arab countries & that many Libyan women attend university...; or that 'Khadaffi's the Aggressor' but failing to elaborate that Khadaffi has accepted several offers of a cease-fire by Hugo Chavez & the African Union- which the Al-CIAeda inspired rebels & the FUK-US NATO group have repeatedly rejected & dismissed out-of-hand. - AND Certainly NO Reports that the FUK-US NATO Group may have been planning to attack Libya via 'Operation Southern Storm' at-least since Nov of 2010! But DN! has had guys on who were obvious US Based mouth-pieces for the AL-CIAeda inspired rebels!
The reason why this struck me the way it did because I definitely was NOT expecting it from DN! & Amy Goodman! And I'm not the only one who's noticed - Members of Cynthia McKinney's Group - which is currently touring the US & reporting on Libya after her fact-finding there- have called on Amy & DN! to 'Stop Shilling for this un-provoked Assault on Libya'...
I have lived a long time now and it saddens me to read about the persecution of Ms. Greenhouse. We should exalt people like her instead we allow the lionization of thugs like Donald Rumsfeld. David Halberstam followed McNamara around and totally discredited McNamara's lies. I say "Halberstam" the lying bastards. Good on you "Bunnie".
Thankyou Amy,
I did hear some of this on your show... We should take this example and begin our whisltblowing... I have more or less... by printing off articles, from your show and from other sources, which people can read and become knowledgeable as to what really goes on in this world....many people are so not aware of any of the real issues and if they are they know a have surface knowledge, then get it mixed up... it takes a lot to pay attention everyday and have time to thoroughly read many sources... but the more people try to do this the more power WE THE PEOPLE HAVE .