Public Employee Press

Media Beat: DVD
Privatized war at $7.50 a cola

Producer Robert Greenwald has produced outstanding films on Wal-Mart, Fox News, and President Bush’s foreign policy. His new DVD, “Iraq for Sale: the War Profiteers,” exposes Bush for going where no other U.S. government has gone before by privatizing war.

We all know how privat-ization of public services opens the door to high costs, poor quality and political favoritism. Now billions of dollars in no-bid, cost-plus contracts have been handed to politically connected companies like Halliburton to provide services like food, laundry, and transportation in Iraq — services that are traditionally done by soldiers and government workers.

Halliburton supplies the troops with six-packs of cola and bills the government $45 each, or $7.50 a can, a symbol of the vast waste and corruption involved. Contractors also get the job of rebuilding hospitals and water plants, denying jobs to Iraqis and reaping huge profits without rebuilding Iraq’s economic infrastructure.

Most fearsome are the contracts to companies such as Caci and Blackwater for private soldiers and prison interrogators, like those who worked with the troops in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. These mercenaries are not accountable to the military chain of command or to U.S. law.

“Iraq for Sale” is a 75-minute DVD with multiple special features, including a 20-minute version perfect for screening at union meetings. It is available for loan at the Ed Fund Library in Room 211, as are all the Greenwald films. To buy it for $12.95, go to www.iraqforsale.org.

— Ken Nash