Iraq For Sale!

On Monday, October 9th, WPL showed Robert Greenwald's latest movie: Iraq For Sale. Fifty-six patrons enjoyed the film, which details gross inefficiencies in the Iraq restructuring effort, privatization of the military, and mass profiteering by corporations.

The film has testimony from former Halliburton employees, US Army personnel, retired US Army officers, civilian truck drivers driving for the Halliburtn subsidiary, Kellog Brown and Root, among others.

The film has been described as “Horrifying” by the New York Times, and Greenwald is stirring up interest in the alleged corruption that “congress won’t face,” says the Houston Chronicle.

A must see film!

Discussion followed the film, lead by Robert Schultheis. Among the questions raised were “How can the army keep its soldiers when corporations are being paid near 10 times to do the same job?” And “How can we keep a military without a draft?” And “Instead of paying corporate mercenaries $100K a year, why not pay troops more to fight for the US Army?” All questions seemed to have a common answer—greed. The Us Army is not a private company, and those who decide on defense spending can’t invest in those tax dollars, the same way they can in private corporations who ‘win’ no-bid contracts to do military jobs, Schultheis explained.

Schultheis discussed his personal experiences out there, and described the corruption as “widespread,” that it “happens everywhere.” The regime was described by some as “evil” and “toxic”; “it’s almost as if they don’t want to win,” Schultheis said. However, optimism prevailed with hopes of change in US policy in the near future.

Attempts to get Robert Greenwald on the speaker-phone failed, as the reception was terrible, and the ongoing discussion somewhat passionate.