Home > The War Profiteers Are Still With Us
by Dave Zweifel
In the days leading up to World War I, "Fighting Bob" La Follette and the man who started this newspaper, William T. Evjue, railed about the rush to go to war.
Those at the forefront of that rush back in 1917-18 were many of the nation’s big corporations, those that made steel, guns, munitions and the dozens of other products that would be needed at the front.
"War profiteers," La Follette and Evjue called them. After the nation did go to war, La Follette produced lists of profits these corporations were making supplying the war machine.
Here in Madison, Evjue listed the huge windfall reaped by the politically connected Gisholt Machine and Foundry Co. on East Washington Avenue from its military contracts. The titans at Gisholt were among the most vocal proponents of the United States entering the war in Europe and were fierce foes of the anti-war La Follette.
Well, folks, times haven’t changed a whole lot.
Perhaps you saw The Washington Post piece we ran a few days ago that, in effect, exposed the war profiteers of the modern era.
According to the article, the lobbyists, public relations counselors and advisers to high-powered federal officials who argued that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and praised exiled Iraqi leader Ahmad Chalabi are now collecting tens of thousands of dollars in fees for helping business clients pursue federal contracts.James Woolsey, the former CIA director, is only one example. He is now vice president of Booz Allen Hamilton, a nationwide consulting firm. Before the war, Woolsey was a founding member of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, an organization set up in 2002 at the request of the White House to help build backing for the war.
Today, according to The Washington Post, Booz Allen is a subcontractor on a $275 million telecommunications contract in Iraq. The story listed a number of other examples.
All this, of course, comes on top of Halliburton, whose corporate officers advocated for war, all the while standing to benefit from huge - and often inflated - profits once that war got under way.
La Follette once said there’s nothing more despicable than profiteering from the blood spilled by innocent American soldiers who have to bear the brunt of the battle.
It’s especially despicable in a completely unnecessary war like the one we’re involved in now.