From this morning’s Washington Post: “Halliburton’s Deals Greater Than Thought”:

Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice President Cheney, has won contracts worth more than $1.7 billion under Operation Iraqi Freedom and stands to make hundreds of millions more dollars under a no-bid contract awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to newly available documents.

The spokesperson for Halliburton is quoted as saying that calling this war profiteering is “an affront to all hard-working, honorable Halliburton employees.”

Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, is said to have liked this riddle:

How many legs does a donkey have if you call his tail a leg?

I don’t know, Mr. President. I guess five.

Wrong. Even if you call the tail a leg, it’s still a just a tail.

I’ll repeat my earlier suggestion for the United Nations: pass a resolution that says that any country that wages war on another country is required by international law to pay for the rebuilding, but make it illegal for any corporation from the aggressor nation to receive a contract to take part in, or profit in any way from, the rebuilding.