War is hell – unless you’re the CEO of a corporation that profiteers on the hell of war. In that case, war literally is like manna from heaven!
While our soldiers are victims of an ever-rising death toll in Bush’s war of lies and incompetence in Iraq, the top executives of corporations supplying the weapons and other supplies for his war are lolling around on soft cushions of unprecedented personal pay – money that comes right out of the pockets of us taxpayers. A new “Executive Excess” survey finds that the top dogs at 34 big Pentagon contractors have helped themselves to nearly a trillion dollars in pay since 9/11.
Enjoying Hightower's work? Join us over at our new home on Substack:
Among the top CEO profiteers: United Technologies ($200 million in pay); General Dynamics ($65 million); Lockheed Martin ($50 million); and Halliburton ($49 million).
Meanwhile, Army privates in Iraq, many of whom have died because the Bushites failed to provide them with the body armor they needed, are paid $25,000 a year for being war fodder. Yet, David Brooks, the CEO of a now-disgraced body-armor maker, took $192 million in pay in 2004 alone.
George W likes to strut around crowing that his war is a noble cause and worth the sacrifices we are making. “We?” Not the CEOs. Their loved ones are not in Bush’s war, facing death and carnage every day. The CEOs have even gotten massive tax cuts from Bush in the middle of this war, so they are not even being asked to pay for it.
Contrast Bush’s plutocratic policy with FDR in World War II. Not only did his four sons serve in combat, but he declared: “I don’t want to see a single war millionaire created in the United States as a result of this world disaster.”
This is Jim Hightower saying… Today, the Bushites refuse even to allow a congressional investigation into the war profiteers. To download a copy of the Executive Excess report, go to www.faireconomy.org.
Sources:
“CEOs making a killing during the war in Iraq,” Austin American-Statesman, September 3, 2006.
Special rate for original Lowdown readers