War Profiteers Call Columbus Home

The war in Iraq has been introduced to us as a distant thing. Something to be kept out of our hands and out of our minds. A recent study proves otherwise. Gradually public concern about the war has risen. Questions about who the war benefits have been pushed into the mainstream. It was revealed last year that Dick Cheney's Halliburton was set to make billions off of the War in Iraq. The media gave Halliburton the guilty verdict and became the sole public image associated with war profiteering. Nothing was done. What wasn't revealed is that many other corporations will benefit from the war as well.

War profiteering is nothing new to the United States. With little prying, one can discover that several of these war profiteers have branches right here in the fair city of Columbus. In the year 2004 alone Lockheed Martin made $20.7 billion off of military contracts. They are the world's #1 military contractor. The company's former vice-president Bruce Jackson chaired the Coalition for the Liberation of Iraq, a bipartisan group formed to promote Bush's plan for war.

Columbus is also home to Science Applications International and Computer Sciences Corporation. The two have recently merged. SAIC was given the contract to run the Occupational Authority's Iraqi Media Network, including television stations, radio stations and newspapers. Even as propaganda goes, the network was such a flop; no Iraqis would watch it; SAIC lost the contract this January. Their financial prospects remain solid as a supplier of surveillance technology to US spy agencies.

Computer Sciences Corporation, also know as Dyncorp, are the world's premier rent-a-cop business. They run the security show in Afghanistan, Iraq, and on the US-Mexico border. They also run the coca crop-dusting business in Colombia. One such war profiteer calls nearby Pataskala home.

Raytheon, which means Light from the gods, are the makers of Bunker Buster bombs, Tomahawk and Patriot missiles. In April of 2003 an American missile caused an explosion at a Baghdad market that killed at least 62 Iraqis. A piece of shrapnel shard discovered in the rubble came from a weapon manufactured in Texas by Raytheon, the world's biggest producer of "smart" armaments.

In short this war is not far away. War is a commodity. We produce it everyday right here in Ohio and the United States Military delivers it to Iraq. What are you going to do about it?

Lockheed Martin Corporation 2780 Airport Drive Columbus, OH (614)418-1930

Science Applications International 4449 Easton Way Columbus, OH (614)473-8800

Raytheon Corporation 180 West St SW Pataskala, OH (740) 927-1242