Review of Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (2006) by Chris G — 17 Jul 2010

A shocking but sloppy piece of agit prop showing corporate cronyism stealing billions, undermining security and costing lives in a privatised war...

Established documentarian Robert Greenwald (â??Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Priceâ?? & â??Uncovered: The War on Iraqâ??) continues his polemic crusade against Bush era policy with this attack on the privatisation of the War in Iraq by an administration with a deeply rooted network of links to the private corporations which profit.

The film starts with an emotive look at two Blackwater contractors killed by company cost-cutting exercises before moving on to look at the involvement of private interrogators in the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib, the loss of military jobs to private contractor and the costplus arrangement which encourages these private contractors to overspend and overcharge for their services.

CorpWatch founder and â??Fahrenheit 9/11â?? contributor Pratap Chatterjee heads up the usual battalion of experts which this time out includes journalist Charles Lewis, camp commandant Janis Karpinski and conscientious objector Aidan Delgado, but it is the disgruntled servicemen, former contractors and bereaved families which give this film its heart.

The reinvented television director takes his cue from â??Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Libertiesâ?? by Nonny de la Peña, as he sidelines his array of talking heads in favour of some slightly editorialised personal stories which bring the entire production to life and allows it to look behind the headlines at those betrayed by the administrationâ??s pro-corporate policies.

â??Rethink this very, very carefully.â??