<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 5.50.4611.1300" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV>
<P>Fine piece by Ms. Huffington -- the kind of piece that Hitch used to write
before he fell in love with that Kurdish freedom fighter, W.
<P>The "money" graphs:
<P>"No one in the administration embodies this bottom line mentality more than
Dick Cheney. The vice president is one of those ideological purists who never
let little things like logic, morality, or mass murder interfere with the
single-minded pursuit of profitability.
<P>"His on-again, off-again relationship with the Butcher of Baghdad is a
textbook example of what modern moralists condemn as 'situational ethics,' an
extremely convenient code that allows you to do what you want when you want and
still feel good about it in the morning. In the Cheney White House (let's call
it what it is), anything that can be rationalized is right.
<P>"The two were clearly on the outs back during the Gulf War, when Cheney was
Secretary of Defense, and the first President Bush dubbed Saddam 'Hitler
revisited.'
<P>"Then Cheney moved to the private sector and suddenly things between him and
Saddam warmed up considerably. With Cheney in the CEO's seat, Halliburton helped
Iraq reconstruct its war-torn oil industry with $73 million worth of equipment
and services -- becoming Baghdad's biggest such supplier. Kinda nice how that
worked out for the vice-president, really: oversee the destruction of an
industry that you then profit from by rebuilding."
<P>"When, during the 2000 campaign, Cheney was asked about his company's Iraqi
escapades, he flat out denied them. But the truth remains: When it came to
making a buck, Cheney apparently had no qualms about doing business with 'Hitler
revisited.'
<P>"And make no mistake, this wasn't a case of hard-nosed realpolitik -- the
rationale for Rummy's cuddly overtures to Saddam back in '83 despite his almost
daily habit of gassing Iranians. That, we were told, was all about 'the enemy of
my enemy is my friend.'
<P>"No, Cheney's company chose to do business with Saddam after the rape of
Kuwait. After Scuds had been fired at Tel Aviv and Riyadh. After American
soldiers had been sent home from Desert Storm in body bags.
<P>"And in 2000, just months before pocketing his $34 million Halliburton
retirement package and joining the GOP ticket, Cheney was lobbying for an end to
U.N. sanctions against Saddam.
<P>"Of course, American businessmen are nothing if not flexible. So his former
cronies at Halliburton are now at the head of the line of companies expected to
reap the estimated $2 billion it will take to rebuild Iraq's oil infrastructure
following Saddam's ouster. This burn-and-build approach to business guarantees
that there will be a market for Halliburton's services as long as it has a
friend in high places to periodically carpet bomb a country for it." </P>
<P><<A
href="http://www.ariannaonline.com/columns/files/021903.html">http://www.ariannaonline.com/columns/files/021903.html</A>></P></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>DP</DIV></BODY></HTML>