The new documentary by Robert Greenwald “Iraq For Sale” starts off slowly but ends with a whallop. The film interviews a wide variety of people, from families of slain Americans, soldiers, as well as former private contractors of Halliburton. They speak of how the war profiteers have had a heyday like never before in the last 5 years. The website can be found HERE.
There are stories of how the contractors didn’t protect their workers and they are harrowing. The stories are told by the families of those who died as well as former contractors who survived the attacks. These are just one drop in a massive bucket of the lives lost and ruined by this dreadful war.
The most hard-hitting facts in the documentary appear in the section where former Halliburton and KBR employees talk about the massive fraud that these companies perpetrated on the American people, and their stories will make your blood boil. They include stories of the company’s managers driving $40,000 (and more) vehicles like Hummers and Escalades around the Kuwait compound, stories about trucks running empty in both directions in convoys to only feeding soldiers at select mealtimes because they are paid by the meal and not by the hour (this enabled them to be attacked during known mealtimes!). They accuse these companies of running up huge tabs under a system called Cost Plus that seem to give them unlimited freedom to spend.
The most moving part was the story of a man who is a water purification specialist. He tells of finding no chlorine in water that the soldiers were bathing in every day. When he checked the water supply he found contamination in 63 out of 67 water sources. He breaks down in tears when he conveys that our soldiers were being exposed to malaria, typhus and he named several other things that sounded like parasites or worse. He wept as he said that soldiers would return to the US with these pathogens in their bloodstreams and would not even be aware of the danger they carry. I sat in shock listening to this. We’ll hear about this in years to come as our veterans become ill like in Vietnam and the Gulf War.
I do have a few quibbles with the documentary. First it starts off with what seems like a trailer for the film with an appearance by Mr. Greenwald that I found a bit jarring, it should have been cut out or put at the end over the credits. Also they interview Chris Lehane and Janice Karpinsky, both of whom I could live without ever having to listen to again. The second half of the film is more interesting than the earlier part, usually in a documentary there is too much footage to edit but in this case I think they should have shot more. Mr. Greenwald’s earlier films, “Outfoxed”, “Wal-Mart” and “Uncovered” were stronger overall but this film still has alot to recommend.
