2004's Top War Profiteers
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PopulistAmerica.com
January 11, 2005
by Michael Boldin
Recently, the Center for Corporate Responsibility released a report, the Ten Worst War Profiteers of 2004.  Although this report was insightful and possibly shocking (with Halliburton coming in at a meager #7), does it really give us the whole story? Tyranny, including foreign entanglements, needs money. Most, if not all, of that money is coming from US Taxpayers, but who is making the profits? Most of the top ten don't provide goods or services to the general public. Although we've heard it for years on numerous issues, a boycott is really in order.  Money, at this point in the game, is our only and possibly best weapon. If the US government is going to unrepentingly tax its citizens, and then turn over those tax dollars to their favorite corporations through foreign rebuilding contracts, defense contracts, and the like, we must fight back. They're stealing our money; money that should be used for schools, healthcare, roads, or simply left in our pockets. Yes, it's the old call for a boycott.
The hard thing here, is that in reviewing the top ten war profiteers, what is there to actually boycott? Not too many of us are going to take our jet fighter business away from Lockheed Martin and buy our fancy new F-22 from "the other guy." We still need to be able to hit these corporations - and millions of Americans can do this. Nearly every one of the top ten aren't in business alone. They share (or possibly hide) their profits through Strategic Alliances, Partnerships, Affiliates, Subsidiaries and Parent Companies. When Lockheed, or Halliburton, or any of the others make money from our tax dollars, or the rape and pillage of the Iraqi and Afghani (and who else in the future?) people, a web of other major and minor corporations are profiting as well. For example, Company "X" is in the top ten. Company "X" in turn is owned by Company "B", who's not on the list, who in turn owns Company "H" and Company "T". "H" and "T" then partner with or manage Company "R", and on and on. These relationships are not minor. As we've done research, as we move down the food chain, these top 10 war profiteers expand into a web of thousands of companies. To keep this as logistically simple as possible, we've limited this list to included companies that are related to the top ten, to the 2nd degree of relationship. Even reducing the list to the closest of corporate relationships, we've come up with a total of 94 companies, plus the original ten. You might be surprised at who's profiting from global dominance from behind the scenes.
The task is simple. Boycott all these companies starting today. Get rid of your AT&T service, don't buy gas at Shell, and so on. Sure, it might be an inconvenience, but you're already giving money to these companies with your tax dollars, so why should you pay them twice? Don't buy that Sony tv, get another brand. When flying to London, choose to not use London Luton Airport, as they're managed by a top ten profiteer, and generate more profit for them. We're all slaves to the corporations, but we still do have somewhat of a choice as to whom we'll give all our hard-earned money to, so stop funding the companies that profit from imperialism. Tell your friends what you're doing, and sooner or later we'll make a difference. Maybe they'll even have to find different companies to profit from the war, and then we'll hit them in the pocketbook too.
PopulistAmerica.com 104 War Profiteers: