Halliburton Scandal: Iraq War

The Halliburton Scandal

Since the inception of civilization, humans – aspiring for power and dominance – have always fought with each other to establish their superiority over another. Race, religion, ideologies, politics, economy, geography – the reasons for waging wars are myriad and incomprehensible. Nonetheless, if there is anything that is understood, it is that common people don’t want war. Unfortunately, however, whether it be the democracy of US or communist dictatorship of North Korea, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy. It is the responsibility of these leaders to look after the common people and avoid any conflict that could result in bloodbath! Nonetheless, what if these very leaders have a personal interest in waging wars? Humans have come far – they’ve evolved from barbarism to sophisticated societies, they’ve created elaborate government and judicial systems, and over-time have improved their standard of living with every decade. Nonetheless, the greedy and selfish beast inside every human still lurks around our civilization today. The Halliburton Scandal of 2002-2003 perhaps demonstrates this very voracious nature of humans!

According to a shocking statistic, since 2001, 71 US companies have been granted contracts to go into Iraq and Afghanistan to help the US soldiers fight the war against terrorism. Of these, the top 10 companies have former US officials, who have worked in the pentagon or other parts of the US government, in the company’s Board of Directors. This statistic implicates something beyond the scope of coincidence. If anything, this is a clear phenomenon of “the revolving door” – through which the executive and government officials spin in and out of the public and private sector, chasing power, access and, of course, money. Throughout many years, numerous people have criticized “the revolving door” as another name for corruption – and The Halliburton Scandal has done nothing less than reaffirm these claims.

Of the top 10 companies that got the contracts for US military operations, Halliburton topped the list with over 700-800 contracts in just 10 years (from 1993 to 2003). During a span of 10 years, Halliburton blossomed into a giant and the world’s second largest oilfield services corporation with operations in more than 70 countries. It now has over 65,000 employees and hundreds of subsidiaries, affiliates, branches, brands and divisions worldwide. Since 1992, Halliburton has been closely linked with the Pentagon and has received contracts for hundreds of US military operations, which include the military efforts in Hungary (1996), Bosnia, Somalia, Haiti, Afghanistan and Iraq. In addition, Halliburton even received contracts to build prisons in Guantanamo Bay, construct the embassy in Uzbekistan and demilitarize the former Soviet Union. How did the Halliburton achieve such a marvelous feat in just over a decade? No one knows the cause behind such a strong linkage between Halliburton and the Pentagon, FOR SURE. Many speculations have been made, however, that point towards the phenomenon of “the revolving door” as a culprit.