the price of human suffering

It's an inevitable part of war that some people will die and others will profit. I get that. I might even accept that begrudgingly. Of course, the ideal is to have no war, and to resolve issues through diplomacy, but that's not going to happen until maybe some global catastrophe forces humanity to refocus its aggression on something else. Hey, there's the silver lining to the whole global warming thing.

While war profiteering may be unavoidable, what is particular sinister is when the war-makers are the same people making the war. People go to jail for more subtle crimes, like insider trading, but somehow, when it comes to war, it's possible to turn a blind eye. CNN recently reported how Halliburton - with notorious ties to VP Cheney (former CEO of Halliburton) - stock rose from $10.25 a share to around $35 a share since the war started. More recently, reports that Halliburton will split its corporate headquarters to Dubai has raised eyebrows about its possible motives with regards to tax or anti-bribery law evasion. Where's the unpatriotic war cry now?

Incidentally, BBC journalist Greg Palast reported that Condoleeza Rice has had secret meetings with the with former Secretary-General of OPEC before the invasion to make sure that the oil wells are not destroyed. Oil prices have risen as a result of the war, and who profits? Oh yeah, Halliburton and the other oil giants, to the tune of $2.3 trillion dollars.

Who suffers? The soldiers. The families of the soldiers. And of course, the Iraqi people, especially the children. And that's not including the recent estimate of 655,000 excess deaths of Iraqi civilians who have died as a result of disease, violence, and other calamities that are indirectly associated with the occupation.

All for what? (Warning: Graphic images.)

We shouldn't just be talking about ending the war. We should be talking about how many trillions in war reparations the United States government ought to be paying for its occupation of Iraq. Hey, why not just take the trillions the oil industry profited from the war?