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AlterNet - September 5, 2006 - by CHARLIE CRAY - The 10 Most Brazen War Profiteers
Halliburton has become synonymous with war profiteering, but there are lots of other greedy fingers in the pie. We name names on 10 of the worst.

The history of American war profiteering is rife with egregious examples of incompetence, fraud, tax evasion, embezzlement, bribery and misconduct. As war historian Stuart Brandes has suggested, each new war is infected with new forms of war profiteering. Iraq is no exception. From criminal mismanagement of Iraq's oil revenues to armed private security contractors operating with virtual impunity, this war has created opportunities for an appalling amount of corruption. What follows is a list of some of the worst Iraq war profiteers who have bilked American taxpayers and undermined the military's mission.

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When the world is overburdened by unnecessary military arrangements and when various demoniac kings are the executive heads of state, this burden causes the appearance of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As the Lord says in Bhagavad-gita (4.7):

yada yada hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya
tadatmanam srijamy aham

"Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion—at that time I appear Myself."

When the residents of this earth become atheistic and godless, they descend to the status of animals like dogs and hogs, and thus their only business is to bark among themselves. This is dharmasya glani, deviation from the goal of life. Human life is meant for attaining the highest perfection of Krishna consciousness, but when people are godless and the presidents or kings are unnecessarily puffed up with military power, their business is to fight and increase the military strength of their different states. Nowadays, therefore, it appears that every state is busy manufacturing atomic weapons to prepare for a third world war. Such preparations are certainly unnecessary; they reflect the false pride of the heads of state. The real business of a chief executive is to see to the happiness of the mass of people by training them in Krishna consciousness in different divisions of life. Chatur-varnyam maya srishtam guna-karma- vibhagashah (Bhagavad-gita 4.13). A leader should train the people as brahmanas, kshatriyas, vaishyas and shudras [1] and engage them in various occupational duties, thus helping them progress toward Krishna consciousness. Instead, however, rogues and thieves in the guise of protectors arrange for a voting system, and in the name of democracy they come to power by hook or crook and exploit the citizens. Even long, long ago, asuras, persons devoid of God consciousness, became the heads of state, and now this is happening again. The various states of the world are preoccupied with arranging for military strength. Sometimes they spend sixty-five percent of the government's revenue for this purpose. But why should people's hard-earned money be spent in this way? Because of the present world situation, Krishna has descended in the form of the Krishna consciousness movement. This is quite natural, for without the Krishna consciousness movement the world cannot be peaceful and happy. END

Footnote 1: According to Vedic literature, the body of human society is comprised of four natural divisions: the head, or the intellectual class of men (brahmanas); the arms and shoulders, or the administrative class of men (kshatriyas); the belly, or the class of men who utilize the Earth's resources to generate wealth and feed the nation (vaishyas); and the legs and feet, or the worker class of men (shudras). All four divisions are meant to work cooperatively to meet the needs of human society. The brahmanas are supposed to give spiritual guidance, and the kshatriyas are meant to establish law and order under the counsel of the brahmanas, the vaishyas are supposed to provide all necessities, and the shudras assist the other three orders, or varnas. Additionally the Vedas prescribe four ashrams or stages of life: brahmacharya, or study under the spiritual master; grihastha, or married life with family and household; vanaprastha, or semi-retirement from family life; and finally sannyasa, or renunciation of all worldly ties and dedication to spiritual self realization. This two-fold system of social orders and spiritual orders is called varnashram dharma. The much maligned caste system currently practiced in India is a perversion of the four social orders; it is clearly stated in the Vedic literature and confirmed by the great acharyas that one's social occupation is not determined by birth but by natural disposition. The four varnas are evident in the world at large—everywhere there are men who naturally fit to the four categories of work. There are the seers, spiritual men, thinkers. There are the prime ministers, kings, soldiers and policemen. There are the business entrepreneurs and land owners, agriculturalists. And there are the workers. All these divisions are still existing, but their original purpose is to cooperate with one another and make progress towards spiritual emancipation, not merely towards material prosperity. Back to text