Does this smell fishy or what?

[Wylie]

tsg68 for President! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif You're good! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowdown.gif

 

[DieselDave]

I believe the liberals are just trying to attack anything they can. They failed in the last election They failed miserably with their anti-war rhetoric. They don't have a platform that's embraced by anyone but the far left. Even if Bush had awarded a contract to one of the left wing socialist groups that funded the anti-war protest, the democrats would have said Bush is trying to get the liberals out of the country and will do anything he can to squash liberal protesters.

I will recant part of my first post or rephrase. I don't know if Brown and Root were the best in 91 with the oil fires, maybe they were a distant third, I don't know. I also don't know if there is any fact in the accusations they were third. I revise my first post with Brown and Root is the biggest and best in America. America spent the most money on the war. American companies should be given most of the contracts. I see nothing wrong with some money coming back to America to offset the expense of the war in the form of contracts to rebuild.

It's comical to see the Democrats in tears over the cost of the war 3 weeks ago and now are in tears because the U.S. will have income and tax revenue from rebuilding Iraq to offset the cost. They are using the old "One side of the argument didn't work so let's flip flop and try the other side." Democrats are undoubtedly the superior debaters, they can argue either side with equal enthusiasm. The only way the Democrats win in all of this is if America loses. I am not sure a small percentage of them are working and hoping for that eventuality. Mind you, I said a small percentage. Most are good Americans that love the country and just like their Republican buddies across the isle it's all about partisanship.

 

[brightnorm]

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[soloco]

I'm so sick of these conspiracy theories. Kellogg Brown & Root has experience doing this stuff and are one of the biggest and best around. Of course there was no bidding. You know how long government bidding would take?

I think the most hilarious part I got out of this thread is the URL for that liberal load of crap website. Has anyone read through this site? It's a joke? Does the DNC run this thing?

 

[Kristofg]

Shouldn't the question be : Where does the money come from?
I mean, as long as it's US dollars from Bush, I'd consider it pretty normal to go to US companies. After all, they are helping rebuild the country, so why is it wrong if the contracts are awarded to US companies? The US destroyed part of the infrastructure, so they get to rebuild it. Now consider what it would be like if he had sent in the army to rebuild Iraq. If they make it better than it was before, then they just did charity work. (ok, I don't agree with killing Iraqi people, I'm just considering the economical side here). The only difference here is that it isn't the army, but civil companies and suddenly it seems as if it isn't right to do the work themselves?
It's a different story when the money would be generated from Iraq resources. Let's say the new Iraqi government wants to construct new buildings, paying for it with their own money, then they should have the choice which company to use for that.

I just think that if the US broke it, they might as well fix it.

 

[Brotherscrim]

I think the administration made a serious mistake on this one. Not so much because they didn't open the job up to bids (though I do believe that wasn't wise), but because appointing a company that Cheney was a former CEO of to do the job creates the appearance of shady dealings in the minds of many people.

I think that "image control" issues have been this administration's biggest problem from the start. Right or wrong, the Bush Admin comes off as arrogant alot of the time. I think that such a (perceived...real?) attitude will become more critical as we get closer to the elections. If we don't have a better economy by the elections, it'll be all of these moves the admin has made "on their own" that people could focus on and perceive as the cause of our situation.

 

[Greta]

Ya know what my theory on this is? Now that no one can ***** about the war anymore or wring their hands and whine about how many innocent women and children will be slaughtered in their beds and how much the Iraqi people don't want us there and how GOOD Sadaam really is... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif... well now that the whiners have been proven wrong on all of those accounts, they have to move on to something else... so this is it. If we wait around for everyone to agree on something around here, the entire middle east will be burned to the ground. Someone had to make a decision and it was made. Period. Move on people. Go feed the homeless down the street or something.

 

[Blikbok]

I have avoided most of the political discussions here, but I have to applaud Sasha's last line: " Move on people. Go feed the homeless down the street or something. "

While global politics is interesting, there are plenty of places where a little good could go a long way, but we'd rather complain about big issues than get dirty with little ones.

 

[Wylie]

It seems as though this is an issue that some would rather ignore and forget then discussed and at this point there is really not much that can be done. It just burns me when people that are supposed to be upstanding and representing our country and morals make such terrible judgment calls as these. Often these things are forgotten and just left to breed. So what ever happened to Hilary Clinton and her tax issues, I haven't heard anything, and where is she now.
As I see it short-term memory leads to long-term problems.
I have honestly been torn apart with this whole issue. Keep the reconstruction in the United States hands, recoup our loses or bring the best people in to do the job (which can be debated as well) or get it done right and timely or put it out to bid.
The whole thing just leaves me to wonder; could there have been a pre-bidding process done over the internet like most government contracts and would this have brought a little sanity to that damn mad man over there.

I have to agree with you two we really have enough problems here at home.

 

[soloco]

I really don't think this is that terrible a judgement call. If it "offends" people, that can't be helped. Honestly, it's not that big deal. The United States as a country; as a whole does the right thing, regardless of what party does it. This is minor. I'm more worried about Syria, Iran, and North Korea. And if anyone says that taking on those three is "all about oil" I'm going to slap somebody.

 

[LED-FX]

Not concerned with internal U.S. politics, its the way it appears to those outside the U.S. These contracts were let out before the bombing started, reinforcing the impression that the bombing was going to happen whatever.The lack of WOMD being discovered and the silence on the subject now, is quite frankly, sinister.

I doubt that the $600m bill is thought of as a gift and that some form of re-payment will be expected.

The U.S. may have been the lead party in this, but other countries contributed as well, U.K. who lost more men to U.S smart weapons than in combat,Spain not sure what their contribution was, but certainly support, Australia who are risking men on mine clearance operations even Poland have special forces in the field.

Though it is talked of as a coalition there is nothing on the news about the other countries taking part. The payback for all this, a warm handshake from G.WW3.Bush.

Syria and Iran have been dodgy for years, why the sudden interest now, one theory links them in with the Lockerbie bomb as a revenge for the Iranian airliner shot down by a U.S. aircraft carrier.

North Korea, lets not go there, the Chinese who do have a claim to being a superpower are unlikely to entertain action that close to their border.

Don`t understand the sudden interest in telling other countries how to run themselves.Unless it is a giant and lethal job creation scheme to prop up the ailing U.S. economy.

I`ve said it before , and I know views differ, but the biggest enemy is within, white collar, board level crime, its affecting the UK economy as well.Rob a grocery store for a couple of hundred and look at 5 years in the pokie, rob a load of investors of a couple hundred million and look at an unflattering profile in the business supplement for a day.

Awarding contracts the way this one has gone is all too common, I live accross form a new public building, Scottish Parliament, that has gone from costing £40M to currently £350M and rising. Multiply by 1.5 to get price in dollars, Scotland has population of about 5 million, so its about £7000 per head of population for a meeting hall.

Auditors report that was suppressed for 2 years shows that the main contractors were selected because they were friends of a senior figure, their tender was 3rd lowest, the architects have been significantly overpaid, sub contractors have been given several million pounds only to go bankrupt without doing any work......and on and on.

Its just an example of how sleaze is a world wide phenomenon.There should be a much,much higher price to pay for abusing funds be it public or private.

But anyway, I digress and should really be doing other things.The one power we have as the little guy or gal in the street is to vote,people have died to enable us to vote, whichever way, right wing, left wing, tactical, whatever.If you want change vote, if you don`t vote don`t complain.

Adam

 

[soloco]

There are actually many companies from differing countries that will be involved in the rebuilding of Iraq. Even companies from our 'friends' the French.