U.S. Gives Bechtel a Major Contract in Rebuilding Iraq Anyone who believes that the US is acting in the best interests of the Iraqi people needs to consider such actions as this awarding of contracts to US firms and their non-defense of the Baghdad museums that were looted and destroyed. Any fool could have predicted such destruction and prepared for it. And this way, with the awards to Bechtel and Halliburton (can anyone see Dick Cheney here?) the cost of rebuilding the Iraq that the US destroyed will not only be born by the Iraqi people, but will enrich the US. There are perfectly good construction firms in the Middle East that are not American...but the whole point has nothing to do with helping the area, only the US. Am I bitter and cynical? You bet....and with damn good reason.