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| Blood Money: Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed in Iraq | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 19 reviews)
Sales Rank: 212799
Category: Book
Author: T. Christian Miller
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Studio: Little, Brown and Company
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
Label: Little, Brown and Company
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.4
ISBN: 0316166278
Dewey Decimal Number: 956.704431
EAN: 9780316166270
ASIN: 0316166278
Publication Date: August 29, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
It was supposed to be quick and easy. The Bush Administration even promised that it wouldn't cost American taxpayers a thing-Iraqi oil revenues would pay for it all. But billions and billions of dollars, and thousands of lives, later, the Iraqi reconstruction is an undeniable failure. Iraq pumps out less oil now than it did under Saddam. At best, Iraqis average all of twelve hours a day of electricity. American soldiers lack body armor and adequate protection for their motor vehicles.Increasingly worse off, Iraqis turn against us. Increasingly worse off, our troops are killed by a strengthening insurgency.As T. Christian Miller reveals in this searing and timely book, the Bush Administration has fatally undermined the war effort and our soldiers by handing out mountains of cash not to the best companies for the reconstruction effort, but to buddies, cronies, relatives and political hacks-some of whom have simply taken the money and run with it.Blistering, brilliant and shocking, this will be the breakout title when it comes to Iraq books, and the catalyst for national debate.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 Informative and Entertaining January 20, 2008
I recommend you read this book if you are interested in government contingency contracting or the issues impeding the Iraqi reconstruction. Mr. Miller shared insight about events and actions that is not gained from the course work on government contracting. His book also shared difficult it is to effect the Iraqi reconstruction. I think Mr. Miller writes this book from an apolitical space, neither left or right. Finally, the book is informative and entertaining. I can't wait for his next book on the subject.
Only Good Manners ...... December 7, 2007
.. prevent me from typing what I really want to say. That would be a string of obscenities that would get me kicked off Amazon.
This book offers the proof that this whole fiasco of a "war" was designed to rob the Treasury of the United States.
 Corruption at its best August 27, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
While the matters in this book have long been alluded to in congressional hearing and the media. this is the first book to gather it up in one volume. It shows an inept government unable to do what was done almost 60 years earlier. Admittedly, the culture and the circumstances were different but the resources were greater. The rampant graft and lack of aggressive action by those in charge, including contractors, is chilling. Have we as a nation state sunk so low?
It presents a thoughtful picture of the risk encountered daily by many employees of contractors. This is the first writing that describes the risk imposed on the professional truckers serving in Iraq. No other writer spells it out so vividly.
This book raises more questions than it supplies answers. Of course, that was the purpose of the book.
No blood money May 10, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is a devastating indictment of the US intervention in Iraq. For the author, the clearest signal of the failure of the reconstruction program is the unabated violence.
The second Iraq war created a paradise for cynical war profiteers, while the Iraqi population was left in the cold. The aid packages were in fact remarkable programs of US domestic handouts and corporate welfare, profiting nearly only to retired Republican operatives, US businessmen and dubious Iraqi exiles with a double agenda.
The profiteers organized an orgy of greed on profit guaranteed contracts. Control was inexistent, e.g., $ 9 billion out of the $ 20 billion of the Iraq Development Fund disappeared without a trace (mind-boggling!). Insurance companies sold mouth watering policies for labor protection. Foreign private security firms played a leading role in the daily violence in Iraq. The contractors hired slave laborers in order to maximize their profits.
The newly installed Iraqi government was not a shade better, e.g., its Defense Ministry misspent or `lost' $ 1.3 billion in its first year in office.
The author illustrates poignantly his terribly shocking expose with concrete examples of personal tragedies, like the suicide of Col. Ted Westhusing, or the murder by his kidnappers of a 19 year old Nepalese, who paid a broker's fee of $ 3000 for a $ 200 per month job in Iraq.
Miller's book shows also the disastrous effect the UN sanctions had on the Iraqis under Saddam (one schoolbook for every six children).
Its final conclusion is that the Iraqi people didn't receive `blood money' - the payment of compensation by an attacker to the family members of dead or injured loved ones. Instead, they inherited a living standard below the `Saddam' level (no power, no water, no sewage treatment).
This book with its formidable title is a must read for all those interested in world current affairs.
How the US snatched defeat from the jaws of victory April 23, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This books deserves a Pulitzer Prize for plugging the huge gap in our knowledge of why the spectacular military triumph was succeeded by the even more spectacular reconstruction fiasco that quickly alienated average Iraqis. The press has focused mostly on the daily casualty counts and on the political maneuvering among Iraqi religious and secular leaders. Left unreported has been the story of why the mainstream Iraqi population that was so hopeful after the US toppled Saddam has turned against us in despair. Miller's investigation and reporting skills are remarkable in detailing so much of what went wrong with virtually every aspect of the occupation. Much of the blame is attributable to the unprecedented reliance on profit-driven private sector firms to carry out public policy of rebuilding Iraq -- which was doomed to failure because normal marke forces don't exist to control behavior of corporations left to run amok. Absolute must reading for anyone trying to understand how any American military success can be rapidly and overwhelmingly squandered by failure to plan for all that must follow.
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