How Much Are You Making on the War, Daddy?

William D. Hartung
January 2004     ISBN: 1560255617

George W. Bush's approach to military spending is essentially a higher-priced version of what went on under the Suharto regime in Indonesia, in which corporations connected to the military and the President's inner circle had the inside track on lucrative government contracts. And there's now plenty of money to go around. The military budget has increased from $300 billion per year to more than $400 billion annually since George W. Bush took office. And the invasion and occupation of Iraq will cost at least another $200 billion over the next three to five years.

US policy is now based on what's good for Chevron, Halliburton, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Bechtel, not what's good for the average citizen. Dick Cheney's ties to arms and oil conglomerate Halliburton are just the tip of the iceberg: At least thirty-two top officials in the Bush Administration served as executives or paid consultants to major weapons contractors before joining the Administration.

How Much Are You Making on the War, Daddy? is a irreverent, impertinent, and scary tour of the arms industry, its defense intellectuals, and its pals in the White House and Pentagon.

William D. Hartung runs the Arms Trade Resource Center, a project of the World Policy Institute. He is a frequent contributor to The Nation and has appeared on The O'Reilly Factor, 60 Minutes, Newsnight With Aaron Brown, Hannity and Colmes, The Lou Dobbs Show, the Lehrer NewsHour and BBC World. He is the author of And Weapons for All.