How Much Are You Making on the War Daddy?: A Quick and Dirty Guide to War Profiteering in the Bush Administration

by William D. Hartung

Book Overview

Columnist Paul Krugman has described Bush's melding of political hardball and economic favoritism as "crony capitalism," while Senator John McCain calls it war profiteering. George W. Bush's approach to military spending is a higher-priced version of what went on under the Suharto regime in Indonesia, when corporations connected to the military and the president's inner circle had the inside track on lucrative government contracts. The military budget...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1560255617
• ISBN13: 9781560255611
• Release Date: December 2003
• Publisher: Bold Type Books
• Length: 182 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

War Profiteering and Policy Makers.

The central question posed by William Hartung is this-Are we as a democracy prepared to deal with the threat implied by the dangerous gathering of corporate,military,and governmental power in a small circle or group? "Why didn't we realize that George W. Bush was a radical,right-wing,neo-conservative 'wolf' dressed up in compassionate conservative 'sheep's' clothing?" is a question on page 4 that I have found myself pondering. I call it voter's remorse. Some issues that the author addresses quite well in the book are: -The identity of the "Vulcans", what their task was, areas of experience, how they got their nickname, and who chose and assembled them. -The farcical process by which Cheney basically selected himself as vice president. -The delusional exaggerations that have been Rumsfeld's trademarks throughout his career and his ties to various companies as an expensive lobbyist. -Rumsfeld's connection to Saddam Hussein in the 80's and his "nuclear" connections with North Korea. -The Carlyle Group and it's infamous crony connections. -The many fiascoes of John Bolton. -How think tanks are biased by means of financial support. -The neoconservative think tanks membership and how they set policies in Dubya's administration. -The identity of the warhawks that schemed up the policy of "preventive war". -The abuse of his position as Chairman of the Defense Policy Board by Richard Perle in solicting funds for his company-Trireme. Which coincidentally, was incorporated in November of 2001 in time to benefit from the foreseen military/security spending boom. Mr. Hartung references a Seymour Hersh report of Perle's unethical pursuit of funding. He quotes Paul Krugman on Bush's policy-"leave no defense contractor behind". The author has Chapter notes at the end of each chapter which cite sources. "How Much Are You Making on the War Daddy?" is an excellent expose' on the profiteers of the current wars and the people that actually make the policies of the current president.

Good even though it didn't help my war-profiteering efforts

This book was solid, well-written, and probably worth the $9... Definitely the topic deserves all the attention it can get, and this book is a good introduction. I'm pretty burnt out right now on learning the finer points of BushCo's shenanigans or I would be more enthusiastic about the book. But one of the other reviewers here did make me smile. Thanks, guy! Your lack of shame or a clue was a ray of sunshine in an otherwise cloudy day. >I thought this book was actually a guide to how to get a hold of the contracts to Iraq. I was interested in starting a company to sell simple items to the average Iraqi, items they had been forced to live without but this book was no help. THis is NOT a business book but it is just a political narrative attacking corporations like Halliburton and Bechtel. A total sham of a read, nothing is reported here that cant be found in the latest issue of the Journal.

An Engaging Book

The author points out how Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense in 1976, was a prime mover behind the CIA's infamous Team B. That panel forced acceptance of its "findings' that the Soviet Union was rapidly overtaking the United States in military power. The author notes that the Soviet archives reveal that even the supposedly too low original estimate of the CIA was vastly exaggerated. .Rumsfeld of course, played a key role in the late 90's arms industry funded movement to portray North Korea as able to quickly develop missles to hit the U.S. These frauds avoided addressing the issue of whether North Korea would really build up some missiles, then just haul off and launch them at the United States, knowing full well North Korea would be wiped off the planet in retaliation. Rumsfeld, he observes, played a role in opening the funnel of American arms and WMD materials to Saddam in his visits with Saddam in 1983-84. He shows how Rumsfeld might have alerted Carlyle Group CEO Frank Carlucci about the planned cancellation of one of it's subsidiary's programs to build the Crusader artillery system. Several months before the cancellation, Carlyle suddenly put the subsidiary on the stock market so that it might draw in shareholders and took out a huge loan based on the inflation of the value of the subsidiary and distributed it to shareholders and execs. Carlyle is of course the group which George Bush Sr. advises and whose executive James Baker and his law firm are representing the Saudi royal family against the families of 9-11 victims. Rumsfeld was on the board of the Swiss engineering firm ABB for years.. That firm made the contract to oversee the construction of North Korea's two light water nuclear reactors. North Korea of course is one of the reasons we have to spend 400 billion on defense according to people like Rumsfeld who of course advocates that the reactor deal shouldn't have been made. . Rumsfeld claimed ludicrously to know nothing about the deal. Of all the ABB board members, all but one, who insisted on anonymity refused to talk to a Fortune magazine reporter about Rumsfeld and this deal. Rumsfeld is obviously very feared, the author notes. He discusses the deal that had the Pentagon be leased a hundred Boeing commercial aircraft to be transformed into aerial refueling tankers. And it seems from documents released by John McCain's office that Darleen Dryun, Airforce undersecretary, gave Boeing the details of its rival Airbus's bid for the project. Dryun then quit her Pentagon job to become a top official of Boeing's Missile Defense division. The author discusses the none-too subtle campaign contributions made to Senator Ted Stevens, Senate appropriations chair just before this deal was put through. The author notes that Richard Perle, while head of the Defense policy board, used that position to try to lobby some rich Saudis into investing in his new security oriented firm, Trieme. Perle claimed that he wanted to talk about Iraq, but his i

War What is it Good For? Absolutely Something

Something alright! What it is worth is millions of dollars in profits for the Bush clan's friends and family members. This book is what the left and right should be talking about more, the real reasons for war, not the cover story of "weapons of mass destruction." Amazing to hear commentators, both left and right of the political spectrum, who will tell you everything wrong with Bush's claim about why we invaded Iraq, but will NEVER even mention the statistics covered so well in this great book on war profiteering. The media NEVER covers the reasons for war other than "national security" issues. If American's knew how much these companies and who they are that profit from such conflicts, this would be a much different country. Highly recommended book. Read it to your neighbor who thinks that this war was about 9/11 or protecting America.

The ultimate insiders guide

We all pretty much know what's going on in Iraq and the real reason we went to war but this book takes you though the process step by step uncovering scandal after scandal the Bush administration is trying to hide.