Outrageous!! Whether one approves of the war or not.

It's truly outrageous that our armed forces can't seem to get the equipment they need for the battelfield. It's pointed out here that an employee of a bank in Minneapolis needed, and thanks to the truly patriotic spirit of his bank, received $1400 worth of equipment that he needed for doing his job in Iraq.
At the same time, it's pointed out that the US Government gave over 20,500 pieces of equipment to Halliburton (Computers, trucks, furniture, etc) and nearly 7000 are missing, gone, unaccounted for, no one knows where they went.

From a January 16 Buzzflash ediorial:

Government By & For Halliburton: Foreign Actions

Halliburton's reach in government policymaking is not confined to domestic affairs. With substantial business interests throughout the world, the company has a stake in some of the Administration's most important foreign policy actions:

IRAQ -- Awarding Halliburton No-Bid Contracts, Despite Company's Record: Halliburton received $2.26 billion in no-bid contracts from the Federal Government for reconstruction in Iraq. The total value of contracts in Iraq could eventually reach $15.6 billion. They were given these contracts despite having a history of price gouging. A 1997 GAO report found the company "billed the Army for questionable expenses for work in the Balkans, including charges of $85.98 per sheet of plywood that cost $14.06." And in 2002, the Pentagon's inspector general and a federal grand jury had investigated allegations that a Halliburton subsidiary "defrauded the government of millions of dollars by inflating prices for repairs and maintenance. The company was forced to pay $2 million in fines."

IRAQ -- Ignoring Halliburton War Profiteering, Then Stonewalling Investigation: After revelations surfaced that Halliburton overcharged the government by $61 million in Iraq, the White House stripped out a provision from the $87B Iraq spending bill that would have subjected the company and other price gougers to criminal penalties. When career government auditors demanded a probe of the controversy, the Administration "obstructed the audit."

IRAQ -- Permitting Halliburton to Mistreat U.S. Troops: The Bush Administration has yet to penalize Halliburton or suspend its contracts, even after the Pentagon "repeatedly warned the company that the food it was serving the 110,000 U.S. troops in Iraq was 'dirty.'" The Pentagon specifically found "blood all over the floor" of kitchens, "dirty pans," "dirty grills," "dirty salad bars" and "rotting meats ... and vegetables" in four of the military messes the company operates in Iraq. Halliburton's promises to improve "have not been followed through" -- and yet no action has been taken by the Administration to reprimand the company.