This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.

Alleged Halliburton employee writes to MIM:


"Freedom" buzzword misused again

[mim3@mim.org comments: We received a letter from someone alleging to work for Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), a subsidiary of the contractor company called Halliburton, of Vice-President Dick Cheney fame.

He appeared to be responding to our article(1) on Thomas Hamill in which we said: "'Last September the 43-year-old volunteer firefighter signed on to drive a fuel truck for a year in Iraq for up to $120,000, tax free,' according to CNN. Hamill was working for a sub-contractor for Halliburton.

"The sad part is that Thomas Hamill is a microcosm of Amerika. Whether any philistines know it or not, Amerikan jobs and salaries depend on the global web of exploitation created by the monster of U.$. imperialism concretely manifested in multinational corporations like Halliburton. Amerikans are generally enemies of the Iraqi people unless they prove otherwise in action. As a truck-driver in Iraq, Hamill was making more (than ten times more(2)--mim3, ed.) money than 90% of the people in the world, because all Amerikans with legal working rights have an extra access to the means of production globally thanks to imperialism.

"Others working and missing in Iraq include seven employees of American contractor Kellogg, Brown & Root. The plan of the Bush administration had been to have thousands of u.$. employees in Iraq carrying out billions of dollars worth of contracts.

"Communists! It's time to break with your phony communist organizations and work with the only organization with a line practically opposing all aspects of the war on Iraq. Anybody oozing any sympathy for the Amerikan contractors is simply oozing sympathy for imperialism. Rather than echoing the Bush administration on the 'barbarians' in Iraq, communists should take sides with the Iraqi people."(1) ]

Alleged KBR employee:

That is as weak a statement as I have ever heard. It must be nice to have the freedom of speech to put people down that are defending our Country. I myself am a contractor working for KBR. I happened to be on the same route as Thomas Hamill that very day. It takes a pretty weak minded person to think that contractors are over in Iraq for any other reason except to help the Iraqi people. We are here to support the military, in order to restore freedom of the Iraqi`s. We put our asses on the line, day in and day out. Until you have the same fortitude to do the same, maybe you ought to keep your pie hole shut!!

mim3@mim.org replies:

So, how much did you make in Iraq compared with what it would be at home/U$A?

If you want to help Iraq, why not send some money and let Iraqis drive their own trucks and build their own infrastructure?

If you are for "free speech" then why are you helping a plan that has resulted in the shutting of newspapers and killing of demonstrators seeking to open them? "Two months after 'liberating' Iraq, the Anglo-US authorities have decided to control the new, free press." www.independent.co.uk

http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/agitation/iraq/bushvshussein.html

Halliburton employee responds:

As for the money that I made over here verses the money that I made at home, the only difference is that it is tax free. I`m not here soley for the money. I am here to support the military, as well as my country. These Iraqi people need alot more than money. They need some deep support. The military is trying to put them in a position to stand up on there own. You need to understand that these people have been deeply suppressed for thousands of years. George Bush didn`t send these TROOPS in here just for war. He got rid of one of the most powerful dictators of all time. It`s about FREEDOM brother. Everybody in this world should be able to enjoy FREEDOM. That is the main reason that we are over here. These people need to be free. We pay a deep price in doing this for other countries. But as Americans, and the rest of the Coalition Forces, that is the price that we are willing to pay. Don`t knock the Contractor for trying to help this cause. Sure alot of us better our financial position in life by working over here. The world will be a better place through finding the better source of a people.

mim3@mim.org replies for MIM:

If you are concerned about freedom, get the Amerikans at KBR to go back home and work on politics there, because the United $tates leads the world in imprisonment per capita. Get the Brits to go back to England, because the imprisonment rate is the highest in Europe there.

http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/faq/freecoun.html

And if you think someone in Iraq would have been better than S Hussein, learn how the united $tates assisted him to power including how Rumsfeld brought him biological weapons.

http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/agitation/iraq/bushvshussein.html

To have the right to boast about freedom, you have to earn it. When the united $tates shows the world how to do with the least imprisonment, then it deserves some attention. Failing that, don't be surprised that people question your real motivations.

[Postscript:
This again is an example why it's important to fight phony Marxism. The imperialists are happy to use "workers" such as this one and Thomas Hamill in a propaganda game to influence public opinion in the united $tates. In the furor over the hostage-taking of a contractor, our phony Marxists were silent or at best inconsistent. Only the MIM line has accurately identified these people as parasites and enemies of the Iraqi people. Only the MIM line has a consistent basis for telling the contractors that they are not innocent construction workers, so they should get their a*es back home.]

Notes:
1. http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/agitation/iraq/thomashamill.html
2. http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/faq/imperialistpopulation.html