This one really pisses me off.
Diplomats and warfighters from the Bush administration, including Zalmay Khalilzad and Jay Garner are now making a natural transition from their roles as former viceroys in Iraq to entrepreneurs in the fledgling state. It’s good to see that Bush administration officials, who presided over the systematic destruction of the sovereign nation-state of Iraq, now have an opportunity to profit from their war crimes. Garner, Khalilzad, and others are "leveraging their war experience helping foreign companies to enter the Iraqi market or starting businesses there themselves."
Khalilzad has established a business advising service, which bears his name, to presumably use the contacts he made in Iraq to help build business relationships with foreign business firms. This actually might end up being the best thing Khalilzad has ever done for Iraq. If he can bring in capital or entrepreneurial ability to help establish useful operations for the Iraqi society then that would be quite constructive. However, for some reason I have a suspicion that these activities might end up expatriating more resources on balance. But of course, that’s purely unsubstantiated so I withdraw it.
Garner, on the other hand, was a board member of Calgary, Alberta, Canada-based oil company Vast Exploration when it purchased an oil block in Kurdistan and Garner remains an adviser to the company. Garner was a man who was a viceroy at the edge of the American empire who is now allowed to profit from his success at playing, or at least administering, the New Great Game. Apparently Garner’s political capital in the Kurdish region was an asset to Vast Exploration. It would seem the retirement plan for corrupt field grade or above officers in the U.S. military is either as a board member or consultant to some company or as a talking head on mass media networks.
I wonder how many enlisted Soldiers who, like me, fought under fire on Iraqi battlefields are getting positions as board members with valuable stock options in greenfields who get market access due to American military adventures. I think front-line Soldiers assumed more of the business risk than the greenfields in this case. Perhaps the families of the Fallen should receive a dividend check or some type of exercisable stock warrant.
According to the article "the move by former Bush administration figures is seen as controversial, especially as many in the Arab world remain convinced the main target of the 2003 invasion was to control the country’s oil resources." No fucking kidding. This is part of what induces terrorists to attack our country in the first place. Normally I am fairly libertarian, but allowing this sort of free enterprise is a national security threat to the United States of America. Garner and Khalilzad should have their Iraq-related assets seized by OFAC and then given a not-so-generous tax deduction for them.
All quotes from http://www.ft.com/...