"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." Anne Frank

Due to a recent accident, my car has not been available to me, so I walk. Today, I was walking home from Walmart. As I was walking, I came upon a mailbox whose mail was strewn all over the ground and whose doors were knocked off. Being who I am, I picked up the doors a put them back on the mailbox and replaced the mail into it.

As soon as I was done, an old man had yelled from across the street, "What the hell are you doing with my mailbox, boy?"

I relayed to him that I was just fixing the mailbox and returning the mail.

He was an older man, maybe 70 years old. He walked with a limp and a cane. He looked at the ground and looked at his mailbox. "I am sorry if I spoke harshly with you sir. It is hard for me to get around and I have had problems with kids busting up my mailbox. You are the first person that I have met to actually stop and help me. Let me give you something for your trouble."

He promptly removed a $20 bill from his pocket and offered it to me.

I said, "Hi, my name is Daniel. Don't you worry about paying me, I am just doing what is right."

He looked at me with surprise, "You mean to tell me that you are just doing it for the sake of doing it? You are a strange one you, know."

I shook his hand, wished him well, and went about my way.

As I was continuing my journey to my apartment, the experience made me ponder about help and trust, and how it reflects on the American lifestyle. I came to the realization that we, as Americans, have a problem with what exactly is help and trust.

Help, by definition, is to give assistance or be of service, with out the expectation of recognition or reward.

Trust is the belief in the honesty and reliability of others.

But to what standards do we hold these concepts? On the government level, we misuse the word "help." For example, if our government goes to help an oppressed people or correct some wrong in the world, we expect some sort of recognition in the form of payback. We claim to go about fighting for Democracy and Human Rights, but behind us are the vultures of capitalism. Corporations waiting to profit from a people just recovering from the grip of despotism and the horrors of war.

One of the main reasons we "assisted" Iraq is to help ourselves to their Economic Dinner Table. We can see many examples of this in Iraq today:

1 Halliburton

The first name that comes to everyone's mind here is Halliburton. Halliburton's KBR, Inc. division charged government agencies $17.2 billion in Iraq war-related revenue from 2003-2006 alone. This is estimated to comprise a whopping one-fifth of KBR's total revenue for the 2006 fiscal year. The massive payoff is said to have financed the construction and maintenance of military bases, oil field repairs, and various infrastructure rebuilding projects across the war-torn nation. This is just the latest in a long string of military/KBR wartime partnerships, thanks in no small part to Dick Cheney's former role with the parent company.

2 Veritas Capital Fund/ Dyncorp

A private equity fund being the number 2 profiteer in the Iraq war is strange. It would mean that there is a group of investors seeking to profit on the ravages of war torn nations. This cleverly run fund has profitted $1.44 billion through its DynCorp subsidiary. The primary service DynCorp has provided to the war efforts is the training of new Iraqi police forces. Often described as a 'state within a state', the sizable company is headed by Dwight M. Williams, former Chief Security Officer of the upstart U.S. Department of Homeland Security. With this and other close ties to defense agencies, Veritas Capital Fund and DynCorp are well-positioned to capitalize on Iraq even more.

3 Washington Group International

The Washington Group International has parlayed its expertise the repair, restore, and maintenance of high-output oil fields into $931 million in Iraq-related revenue from 2003-2006. The publicly traded 25,000 employee company's other specialties include the building and maintenance of schools, military bases, and municipal utilities, such as watering systems. Some have complained that Washington Group's hefty government payoffs have served primarily to raise its trading price on the New York Stock Exchange. One thing is for sure - with oil prices continuing to rise, there will be no shortage of demand for the oil protection services Washington Group International brings to bear.

4 Environmental Chemical

All war zones eventually becomes cluttered with spent ammunition and broken/abandoned weapons, creating a lucrative niche for any company willing to clean it all up. In Iraq, this duty has fallen into the hands of Environmental Chemical. The privately held Burlingame, California company has stockpiled $878 million by the end of fiscal 2006 for munitions disposal, calling upon its "decade of experience planning and conducting UXO removal, investigation, and certification activities." The company has close ties to several defense agencies and is staffed by graduates of the U.S. Navy's Explosive Ordinance Schools, as well as the U.S. Army's Chemical Schools at Anniston.

5 Aegis

Aegis has done the United Kingdom proud after reeling in a contract to coordinate all of Iraq's private security operations. The Pentagon contract is good for $430 million (incredibly lucrative by any standard) but it has landed Aegis in some hot public relations water. The company's decision to contribute to Iraq war efforts has lead to a rejected membership application from the International Peace Operations Association. According to The Independent, the influential trade organization does not consider Aegis worthy of inclusion in the "peace and stability industry." It remains to be seen whether Aegis will continue to be ostracized for participating in the training of Iraqi security forces.

6 International American Products

Even with all of the blinding innovation and trailblazing advances in military technology, none of it would be very useful without electricity. Running electrical wiring in hostile war zones is dicey business, but International American Products has stuck their neck out and collected a cool $759 million in just 3 years for its efforts. While avoiding enemy fire, their work has become increasingly dangerous - and yet, critically necessary - as Coalition forces struggle rebuild cities, put down warring forces, and stabilize the chaotic nation. Schools, oils wells, and other public infrastructure have relied on IAP for the electricity needed to operate. With Iraq slowly beginning to stabilize, International American Products is holding out hope that its job will eventually become less treacherous.

7 Erinys

London-based Erinys has so far scored $136 million for its effort in securing Iraq's precious oil reserves. Riding the coattails of its considerable mining, petroleum, and construction expertise, the company has already made considerable headway toward this critically important goal. In the space of just 16 months, Erinys successfully trained, equipped, and mobilized an all-Iraqi guard force of nearly 20,000 to protect the nation's oil pipeline from terrorist attack or sabotage. With crude oil prices skyrocketing and no end in sight, Erinys looks to have its hands full for years to come.

8 Fluor

Fluor scored a monster $1.1 billion contract in 2004 to build, service, and manage water/sewage systems in Iraq. The deal is actually a joint venture between Fluor (a 44,800 employee company based on Aliso Viejo) and London's AMEC, PLC and actually encompasses two separate contracts. The first - worth $600 million - obligates Fluor to build a water distribution infrastructure and cleaning system for Iraq's major cities. A second $500 million deal will have the lucrative joint venture performing similar tasks in other, less hostile regions of the country.

9 Perini

Perini (controlled by financier Richard Blum) is one of the more controversial companies to have scored big-time Iraq war money. That's because Blum's wife, Senator Dianne Feinstein, appears to have used her seat on the Military Construction Appropriations subcomittee to steer the $650 million environmental cleanup deal in his favor. This has lead to outrage and cries for conflict of interest investigations among those in the media, as well as Feinstein's peers in Congress. Feinstein has also neglected to comment on this potential conflict of interest. This has lead to what Metroactive.com calls an "omission [that] has called her ethical standards into question."

10 URS

Another widely disparaged, Blum-controlled company that has profited from Iraq is URS Corporation. Long known as one of the nation's major defense contractors, San Francisco-based URS has collected $792 million in environmental cleanup fees in Iraq war zones. As with Perini, both Blum and Feinstein have come under intense scrutiny to answer questions about the apparent conflict of interest inherent in Feinstein helping to secure such an exorbitant government contract for her investment banker husband. Both Blum and Feinstein have refused to produce copies of the ethics commitee's rulings on Perini and URS, leading to considerable suspicion.

11 Armor Holdings

Armor Holdings (now a subsidiary of publicly traded BAE Systems) is one company whose opinion of the Iraq war can't be all that negative. Since combat commenced in 2001, the company's revenue has skyrocketed by a mind-blowing 2,247%, up to $634 million. Armor Holdings' specialty is providing state-of-the-art armor for military vehicles and important personell as they traverse dangerous Iraqi war zones. The civil war between opposing Sunni and Shia and general unrest throughout the country have greatly increased the demand for the company's products.

12 CACI

CACI was called upon by the U.S. government to provide 36 interrogators to Iraq, 10 of which were assigned to Abu Grhraib. While all the details have not yet come to light, it looks like CACI profited from Iraq in the worst possible way. One website notes that a leaked Army investigation implicated CACI employee Stephen Stefanowicz in the abuse of prisoners." Furthermore, the allegations have led the Center for Constitutional Rights to agitate for trying CACI and its affiliates in U.S. courts.

Susan Burke, an attorney working on the case on CCR's behalf, was quoted as saying "We believe that CACI and Titan engaged in a conspiracy to torture and abuse detainees, and did so to make more money."

13 Custer Battles

Custer Battles has the dubious distinction of being the first Iraq war contractor to be found guilty of fraud. In March 2006, a jury ordered Custer to pay damages in excess of $10 million for 37 counts of fraud, including what the judge called "false and fraudulently inflated invoices." While Custer wriggled out of serious penalties on a technicality (the Coalition Provisional Authority is not part of the U.S. Government and therefore crimes against it cannot be tried under U.S. law), the whole ordeal has muddied the company's reputation greatly, possibly beyond repair. It also seems to have opened the floodgates for similar cases of contractor fraud. As of fall 2006, a backlog of 70 fraud cases were pending against Iraq contractors doing all manner of work.
During the trial, a retired Army general testified that the inflated invoice scandal stood out to him as "probably the worst I've ever seen in my 30 years in the Army."

14 Nour USA

Of all the companies on this list, Nour USA might be the only one who actually did not exist until the Iraq war got underway. Since its opportunistic opening, the company has recieved $400 million in Iraq-related contracts, including a gigantic $80 million deal to secure the nation's oil pipelines. Some critics allege the contract was pushed through by Ahmed Chalabi (whom one website calls "Iraq's No. 1 Opportunist.") While Chalabi has denied this allegation, several other bidders on the pipeline contract point out how awfully strange it is for a company with no prior experience to be awarded such a large contract.
Of course, it probably didn't hurt Nour to have William Cohen (former Defense Secretary under Bill Clinton) on board as a company consultant.

This is only a partial list of companies that are carving the Iraqi goose. If we were truly seeking to improve Iraqi freedom, would we not be trying to establish Iraqi businesses to take of Iraqi's needs?

The point of my article is to point out that if we, as Americans, cannot trust our government to establish a democracy in foreign lands, then can we trust our own democracy as well? If we do not help because of moral obligation to our fellow man then we cannot trust our government, we cannot trust our fellow citizens.

Our America has broken an ethical code. The selfless acts of heroes past, from Paul Revere to Lt. General Lewis "Chesty" Puller, were worthless if the ideals that they put themselves at risk are not upheld not only in government, but also by the citizen. It is time that our country needs to redress what the ideals are of a true Democracy, and it is time we start rebuilding trust with the international community. A man with out honor is no man, and a country without honor is country of thieves.

I would like to close with this quote,

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. " Thomas Jefferson