KBR has made $32 billion off the U.S. taxpayer? WTF?

[bushmeister0]

$32 Billion? Can that be right? I mean, I guess, I kind of knew they were making a bundle off W.'s blunder but, wow.

AP:

"In its first report to Congress, the Wartime Contracting Commission presents a bleak assessment of how taxpayer dollars have been spent since 2001. The 111-page report, obtained by The Associated Press, documents poor management, weak oversight, and a failure to learn from past mistakes as recurring themes in wartime contracting . . . The commission cites concerns with a massive support contract known as 'LOGCAP' that provides troops with essential services, including housing, meals, mail delivery and laundry ... KBR Inc., the primary LOGCAP contractor in Iraq, has been paid nearly $32 billion since 2001. The commission says billions of dollars of that amount ended up wasted due to poorly defined work orders, inadequate oversight and contractor inefficiencies."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/08/AR2009060800522.html?hpid=moreheadlines

We've paid these sons of bitches $32 billion to poison and electrocute our troops and otherwise generally fuck shit up on a historic scale? These guys have made Vietnam look like the Normandy invasion. The mind boggles!

I remember reading somewhere that in 68' or '69 the price of brass went through the roof because the US was using most of the world's supply to make shell casings destined for Vietnam. ARVN artillerists were accused of shooting off tens of thousands of rounds into the rice paddies and then taking the casings and selling them back to the US and making a hefty sum in the process.

KBR is essentially doing the same thing. Billing us to fix the shit they already fucked up, over and over again.

But . . .

"'As we look back on what we've done, we're real proud of being able to go into a war theater like that as a private contractor and support 200,000 troops,' William P. Utt, chairman of the Houston-based KBR, said in May in an interview with AP reporters and editors."

[NYC_SKP]

1. "Bush's Blunder"? That was no blunder.

This KBR part of the mess was exactly what was meant to be.

:patriot:

[KansDem]

2. Just think how much KRB would have made had Bush *not* invaded Iraq...

Not to mention Halliburton, Blackwater, and the rest of "Bush, Inc."