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 The Ultimate MistakePosted on Mar 1, 2006By Molly Ivins AUSTIN, Texas—The administration’s competence problem is already at the yadda, yadda, yadda stage. They were supposed to protect us from terrorist attack, they said Iraq would be a cakewalk, that we needed only 50,000 troops. They failed to plan for the occupation or Hurricane Katrina or the prescription drug plan. Yadda. But when you look at the details of what incompetence means, it becomes both chilling and really, really expensive. The Army announced this week it has decided to reimburse Halliburton for nearly all of the disputed costs among the more than $250 million in charges the Pentagon’s own auditors had identified as excessive or unjustified. According to the Pentagon’s figures, it normally withholds an average of 66% of what the auditors recommend. In this case, the Pentagon wound up paying all but 3.8% of the disputed costs, a figure so far outside the norm it was noticed immediately. Rick Barton of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told the New York Times, “To think that it’s that near zero is ridiculous when you’re talking these kinds of numbers.” You may recall Bunnatine Greenhouse, a senior civilian contracting official with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who said the Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) contract was “the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career.” (Greenhouse was later demoted for her honesty.) Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said, “Halliburton gouged the taxpayer, government auditors caught the company red-handed, yet the Pentagon ignored the auditors and paid Halliburton hundreds of millions of dollars and a huge bonus.” In addition to costs, the Army, which blamed the excess on “haste and the perils of war,” also awarded the company additional profits and bonuses provided in the no-bid contract. And now comes a curious new contract for KBR, the Halliburton subsidiary. The contract provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing Immigration and Custom enforcement. It’s a contingency contract—the contingency they have in mind apparently being “in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the United States.” Canadians drowning from global warming? Mexicans feeling the return of PRI? Ah, but the contract also specifies the detention centers are to “support the rapid development of new programs.” New programs? Far be it from me to speculate. Advertisement What else are these people planning for? How to get body armor to the troops after all this time? Improved port security? One of the problems we have here is that in order to fix a mistake, it is first necessary to recognize that you’ve made one. But we’re dealing with George W. Bush. We should be getting ready for three Katrinas next year, but first the administration would have to recognize that global warming is taking place. One of the most discouraging morsels of news in recent days is that President Bush was so enchanted by Michael Crichton’s novel purportedly debunking global warming that he asked Crichton to the White House to chat with him. HELP! Why can’t we ever get a break? Think what would happen if the president read the “The Da Vinci Code.” And so we are back to the ultimate mistake. I’m all in favor of saving face in Iraq; they can call it Iraqification or whatever they want to. Declare victory and go home, fine by me. But somewhere, somehow, some grown-ups are going to have to admit that this whole endeavor was a terrible idea. I’m for democracy. I’m against Saddam Hussein. I’m sorry it didn’t work out the way they wanted it to. Now let’s go. Because anybody who tells you it couldn’t possibly get worse is a fool. To find out more about Molly Ivins and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate’s Web page at www.creators.com. Previous item: Pity the Fool Next item: Gore Vidal on 'Capote,' 'Brokeback Mountain' --and Why 'Match Point' Is the Best Picture of 2005 CommentsAre you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig. Add Your Comment |
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By Rick Landry, March 9, 2006 at 12:08 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
bg1
Thanks for the links! Yes, that is very helpful…albeit simultaneously horrifying.
I see several detention centers in my own locale.
Unfortunately, they exist behind secure military
gates.
Thank you for the information on this eye-opening
Report thissubject.
The Bittermonk,a.k.a., R. Landry
By susan kovach, March 8, 2006 at 5:22 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
When in my teens and I first learned that we had rounded up our Japanese citizens and put them into detention camps during WWII, I was horrified.
When I asked my mother what she thought of the detentions, she basically said “not much”. Said
she was tending to my sister and myself, both babies, while her husband was off to war. Too busy!
If the bird flu detention centers are filled with anti-administration folks, will we someday say we were too busy to care. I wonder?
Report thisBy magoo, March 4, 2006 at 1:54 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Re: ‘temporary detention centers’ are nominally for a massive outbreak of bird flu, but like all Bush programs, will end up being used for something other than the stated purpose. Yeah, like herding up peaceful protesters in a national emergency. Bush declared a state of emergency after 9/11 and the order is still ineffect. If he cancels national elections…bird flu?!...anything could happen.
Report thisBy DAN WEISMAN, March 4, 2006 at 5:41 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Accurately expressed Molly. I’ve composed a reggae rant along similar lines:
Report this“We’ve become on big corporatocracy-
Which has taken over our democracy-
while feeding violent theocracies-
And Financing evil ideologies-
And creating this current IDIOT-O-Crazy!-
Oh Yeah!..Oh Yeah!..Oh Yeah….”
By bg1, March 4, 2006 at 5:18 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
To Rick Landry:
Check out this link:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/concentration.html
At the bottom of this page there is the following link:
http://www.sianews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1062
I hope this helps you.
Report thisBy Don in East Rutherford, NJ, March 3, 2006 at 9:16 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
for Rachelle, a follow-up:
available now (3/3/06) at Truthout.org, “Burying The Lancet Report,” by Nicolas J. S. Davies, originally published in the February 2006 issue of Z Magazine. In that article, Davies extrapolates from the “at least 100,000 excess Iraqi civilian deaths” (excess deaths means deaths that would not have occurred except for the invasion) estimate of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health/Baghdad University study published in 2004, to get a current figure:
“Allowing for 16 months of the air war and other deaths since the completion of the survey, we have to estimate that somewhere between 185,000 and 700,000 people have died as a direct result of the war. Coalition forces have killed anywhere from 70,000 to 500,000 of them, including 30,000 to 275,000 children under the age of 15.”
Report thisBy Don in East Rutherford, NJ, March 3, 2006 at 4:20 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
for Rachelle,
IraqBodyCount.net keeps a tally of Civilians reported killed by military intervention in Iraq. Casualty figures are derived from a comprehensive survey of online media reports from recognized sources. As of 3/3/06, the minimum was 28,591 and the maximum is 32,225 dead. Click here: Iraq Body Count
Note that in Oct 2004, a joint investigation and report by the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, Columbia University School of Nursing and Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad, and published in the respected British medical periodical, The Lancet, estimated that 100,000 more Iraqis died than would have been expected had the March 2003 invasion not occurred. Click here: Iraqi Civilian Deaths Increase Since War
(I don’t know if these links will work. The Hopkins survey report can be found at my.jhsph.edu, of just google the appropriate key words.)
As to Iraqi wounded, I’ve seen no estimates of that number.
Report thisBy AmeriPundit, March 3, 2006 at 12:55 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Re: support the rapid development of new programs.
Anyone who thinks that this Administration will allow another to take its place and go through “classified” documents is out of their mind.
Realizing that Ms. Ivins has to keep a certain level of decorum in order to continue getting published, make no mistake, she is putting the above-mentioned phrase in her article to let the general public think about it for a bit.
Unfortunately, the “general public” will give it less consideration than choosing between Burger King and/or McDonald’s for “fine dining”.
Report thisBy Michael Kwiatkowski, March 2, 2006 at 11:41 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Ms. Ivins, once again you tell it like it is. I cannot thank you enough for being one of the ever-dwindling voices of Truth in this once-great nation.
I am both appalled and outraged that not only has Halliburton ripped off the Army, not only has the Pentagon committed the outrage of demoting a truth-teller in the Corps of Engineers (a common practice in the Bush regime), but that the Army is being forced to “reimburse” funds that were stolen from the ARMY! Who the hell ever heard of a victim of theft being forced to reimburse the thief for the money he had stolen from him by the aforementioned thief?!? No one that I know of, until the Bush regime came along.
Keep telling it like it is, Ms. Ivins. Maybe it’s all just shouting to the wind, but there are people listening.
Report thisBy faith, March 2, 2006 at 8:52 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Bravo, Ms. Ivins ! Great editorial and I agree with you 100%. Whatever Mr. Bush wants to call it - just get us out of Iraq, now.
Report thisBy rachelle, March 2, 2006 at 7:35 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
I am simply *exhausted* by all the debates going on about who did what to whom.
All I want ANYONE to tell me is:
How many Iraqis were killed, maimed, disfigured or disabled for life, whether or not they were considered terrorist, insurgents (patriots?) simply distressed folks or unfortunate bystanders? Men, women and children. I want NUMBERS. And all over the friggin’ web, no one has that answer. Does anyone speak English out there?
As for who did what to whom, don’t get me going… Hey Molly, ultimately we are all responsible. Except, somehow, you and me, and that friend you love, and your closest neighbor, and…and…
I respect you *totally*, and always did (read you extensively) but I suspect I am way more angry/upset than most. What to do…?
Sigh.
Report thisBy Yonk, March 2, 2006 at 6:23 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Dear Molly
Report thisIs it possible for you to get date contracts were signed giving Halliburton deals in Iraq.
At one time Judicial Watch claimed that way before 9/11 Cheney had a map dividing up Iraq for US oil industries.
Somehow this info gets no press
By waldo, March 2, 2006 at 6:14 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
What Rick Landry said.
Report thisBy felicity smith, March 2, 2006 at 5:26 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Goood job, Molly. New word from Kos - Ineptocracy, a new form of government. Forget Democracy, Republic, Oligarchy, Plutocracy - remember Ineptocracy, a form of government run by Ineptocrats who function ineptocratically, or whose thinking is ineptocratic.
Report thisBy Susan Estelle, March 2, 2006 at 3:48 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
i find it truly curious that nobody is screaming because THE COMPANY SUPPLYING THIS WAR IS OWNED AND RUN BY GEORGE’S UNCLE “bucky” BUSH! CAN YOU SPELL CORRUPTION? Is it possible gw rushed us into Iraq because its profitable to do so?
Report thisIS IT POSSIBLE GW COULDN’T CARE LESS ABOUT FREEDOM (its actually a joke when you think of all the freedoms his admin.is trying to steal away from us in the usa)
YES, ITS OBVIOUS(as seen in katrina)UNLESS YOUR A WHIT,RICH MAN-YOUR LIFE DOESN’T MEAN SHIT! I HATE THIS PRESIDENT AND SEE HIM SORT OF LIKE OUR HITLER
By Charles Cooper, March 2, 2006 at 2:01 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Molly to smell corruption and danger. Rick to document it. This combo could turn things around.
Report thisBy Bill Wetzel, March 2, 2006 at 11:40 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
You know, I think he said a few years ago that he was reading “The Da Vinci Code.” Just another liberal inaccuracy by an insanely liberal writer.
Too bad Molly’s been right for as long as I can ever remember.
More right than this administration ever was.
And, I doubt Bush ever actually read any of these books. Cliff’s Notes, anyone?
Report thisBy Rick Landry, March 2, 2006 at 11:17 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Dear Ms. Ivins,
I feel somewhat embarassed to reveal that I am a ‘fan’ of your writing. At age 58, it feels awkward to acknowledge one fits in the ‘fan’ category; however, if I see your name associated with a new posting on the sites I visit daily, I always read the Molly Ivin’s piece first.
‘The Ultimate Mistake’ editorial interests me most in the few paragraphs where you focus on the ‘black helicopters’ syndrome, i.e., these shadowy “detention centers” we distaff citizenry keep finding allusions too. We know who is building them, we know what the ballpark cost is reputed to be, and we know that KBR is involved.
These ‘details’ lack precisely that and surmount to generic-based speculation, more than confirmed or specific information. This is as disconcerting as the covert intent of these proposed facilities.
I am a writer ( feature contributor ) for several regional magazines, and I perform the commercial, high-quality photography as well. I have an offer to make you, Ms. Ivins, and/or anyone who may be in a position to take interest.
I would like to learn where construction or ground-breaking activities have begun on ANY of these locations, and I would like to travel there and photograph what is taking place. Consider it the Ansel Adams equivalent of ‘Manzanara’, his wonderful photo-journalist work on the Japanese detention centers.
How can we learn where these sites are to be constructed? Is it not public information? Does anyone have any clue where this is going to take place at? I sincerely want to be amongst the vanguard of photo-journalists to document and provide tangible evidence to the American people of what is poised to take place right under our noses; photos such as these will help ‘frame’ the grave connotations such camps portend, and perhaps help to raise resistance and outcry against implementation of such Orwellian practices before it is too late.
Have camera, have skills, have motivation: will travel. Who can point me in the right direction?
Thank you, Molly, and keep up the good fight.
Report this