Luhe- sorry for a huge copy and paste. But here is why we can’t let the industrial military complex run the world
We're in an era where financial and political transactions are far too sophisticated and subtle for us to pull out the "War Profiteering" label and have it stick.
Let's call it what it is: Crony Capitalism
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I agree with the facts of Gary Teal's response, if not the analysis.
Cheney, as former CEO of Halliburton, did have a severance package which included a set amount in deferred cash compensation, as will as over 400,000 shares in stock options. This is common practice for CEOs of major corporations, whether or not they are about to be vice president.
When he became vice president, Cheney was not legally required to sever his financial interests with Halliburton (the Vice President is not subject to conflict of interest regulations). However, it'd be bad form (and a media nightmare) to keep these direct ties.
In an attempt to avoid the appearance of a conflict, Cheney signed a legal agreement stating that all post-tax benefits received from exercising the stock options would be donated to charity. (In addition to the 20% going to Capital Partners for Education, as mentioned by Gary; 40% would go to George Washington University's medical faculty and 40% to the University of Wyoming). It also said that he would not take a tax deduction for these charitable contributions.
While it's possible that altruism was one of the motivating factors behind purchasing insurance guaranteeing the charity would receive the income, regardless of whether Halliburton was solvent -- More likely the primarily motivating factor was in closing any perceived loopholes in the "conflict of interest" case: no matter what events happened later (or what events Cheney might cause to happen later), X amount of money was guaranteed to go to Y causes.**
In short, this was very carefully crafted to ensure that "not a penny" went directly from Halliburton into Cheney's pockets.
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I also agree with the facts of Christopher Rodreguez's response, if not the analysis.
While Cheney didn't make anything off of Halliburton due to the occupation of Iraq, as Christopher outlines Halliburton and KBR certainly made out quite well thanks to the policies of the Bush Administration and Cheney's influence in energy and defense policy.
In fact, the whole military/defense and energy sectors made out quite well due to Iraq war and post-war reconstruction contracts.
Anyone who is an executive in, who is heavily invested in, or who is otherwise affiliated with the private/political revolving door in the defense sector personally profited. This includes Cheney -- as well as members of Cheney's family, his business associates, executives at Halliburton, their families, their business associates ... and so on and so on. This isn't "evil" -- it's "just business and politics."
As is usually the case, the exact amount of profit depends on the level of wealth invested, and the contacts available to leverage for ... political donations, new business contracts, board seats, etc.
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I have no love for Cheney. But trying to connect the dots from Cheney ... Direct Cash Profit is a no-go.
Plenty of people, with varying levels of direct and indirect political influence, profited from the wars: Republicans, Democrats, lobbyists, contractors, corporate fat cats. It's not a simple sound-byte super-villain scenario. Cheney is the easiest-to-spot target -- but he's playing by the rules of a much bigger game that started long before he entered the scene.
It's a layer of corruption deeply embedded within our government, that allows (and expects) wealthy corporate-connected folks look out for the interests and profits of their wealthy corporate-connected friends (and donors).
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** It is worth noting that the independent Congressional Research Service stated that receiving deferred compensation and holding stock options constitutes a "financial interest", regardless.K