According to the following article, the US Military has finally gotten sick and tired of overpaying Halliburton for fuel and supplies.

Army to end Halliburton deal

The No-Bid contracts that Dick Cheney insisted on handing to Halliburton, rebuilding Afghanistan, Iraq, and Louisiana, have allowed the company to gouge the federal government for billions more than projected. Essentially, the company can name any price it wants for any project, service or supply.

That’s not to mention the other scandals. Halliburton reportedly provided spoiled food and tainted water to troops in Iraq. They employed thousands of illegal immigrant labourers to clean up after Katrina before firing and deporting them six weeks later without pay. And remember when the Army outsourced prisoner management and interrogation to “private security contracting firms” early in the war as a way of avoiding war crimes? Guess who that was.

All this war profiteering has legitimized the idea of war as an American industry. We build the weapons which demolish the cities then we award ourselves contracts for rebuilding them. War becomes a continuous process that noone wants to disrupt. It’s the only reasonable justification for a war against an emotion, where diplomacy is impossible, the battlefield is global and the objective is unmeasurable. And because the contracts are no-bid, it’s easy to hide the mounting costs and worsening projections.

Cheney has been quick to volunteer Halliburton for federal projects at every turn, and until now has had the clout to speed outlandish contracts through the system. A blow to Halliburton is a direct blow to Cheney. As a former board member, Cheney’s fortune is still tied largely to the net worth of the company. No doubt he will continue to pull strings on their behalf.

After reading this article, I finally have hope that there are deep cracks in the culture of cronyism that allowed such contracts to be signed.