Once again, Haliburton is in the news. They are being subpoenaed for information related to alleged illegal business activity in Iran. For those of you who don’t know, Iran is actually a terrorist state. It is illegal for any American person or company to do business with them. Why? Because they have a history of holding and abusing American hostages. There is solid intel that they are still holding American hostages that were captured as far back as 1979. We don’t do business with Iran because they are the bad guys. They have weapons of mass destruction. They fund countless terrorist organizations including Al Qaeda. They willingly allowed 10 of the September 11th terrorists to cross their borders without record. Even George W. Bush included them as part of the so-called Axis of Evil. They are the Iraq that this administration invented.

In 2003, in response to queries about Iranian business dealings Haliburton made the statement that “it is not illegal for us companies’ independent foreign subsidiaries to conduct business in Iran.” Independent subsidiaries? That is the best oxymoron I’ve heard since ‘military intelligence’. In the spurious words of President Bush, “Fool me once, shame on you. But you’re not going to fool me again.” How many times do we let the wolf eat our sheep before we believe the boy crying for help? I don’t want anyone in my country that is willing to do business with an enemy state, especially on a technicality.

This nation is being raped by the special interests of big business. We have allowed them to create an environment where they can get away with just about anything. Only those companies that take things too far, like Enron, are paying the price. The careful carpet-baggers are thriving behind distractions like Martha Stewart’s insider trading and Rush Limbaugh’s drug habit.

I believe that capitalism can be compatible with patriotism and humanitarianism. I’d like to think that morality can bring rewards tenfold those of selling your soul. If we only could escape the fear, take control and demand that every person who wishes to call this land their home is willing to lose everything to protect it. Freedom is an individual right but a collective responsibility. We could be the strongest nation in the world, adults among children, if only we were willing to stand up and say enough is enough.