Your tax dollars at work.

[flamin lib]

"We are there at the invitation of the Iraqi government. This is a sovereign nation. Twelve million people went to the polls to approve a constitution. It's their government's choice,’’ the president said during a Rose Garden news conference. "If they were to say leave, we would leave." May 24, 2007

September 16,2007, Blackwater, a private contractor, kills 11 Iraqi civilians and wounds 13 more in what witnesses say is an unprovoked attack while escorting US diplomats.

September 17, 2007, Iraqi Government cancels Blackwater’s license to operate in Iraq, telling the company to leave.

September 19, Condelezza Rice phones Iraqi President Maliki.

September 20, Blackwater resumes security duties.

So much for a sovereign nation and a government’s choice. Of course we shouldn’t be too surprised that Mr. Bush would lie to us. He said he’d listen to the Generals. Before the war Chief of Staff U.S. Army General Eric K. Shinseki said we would need 200-300,000 troops. He got fired. When Gen. Wayne Downing, deputy national security adviser, agreed with Shinseki he too was fired. When Gen. John Abizaid, US commander in the Middle East, said we needed to start withdrawing troops because we were only making things worse he got fired. Bush had to search through a half dozen Generals until he found Petreaus who would act a puppet for him. Wonder how Petreaus likes that hand stuck up his ass? But I digress . . .

Who, or what, is Blackwater? Blackwater is a private contractor supplying “security” to diplomats and top ranking generals in the Green Zone around Baghdad. Security in this case means guards armed with military weapons who provide cover and escort service to whoever pays them. There are about 140,000 private contractors in Iraq doing every thing from security duty to police work and construction. They provide food and water to our troops, deliver equipment and even interrogate suspected insurgents.

Wait a minute, I thought that was what the Army was supposed to do! In every other war we’ve ever fought in it was our troops feeding and supplying our troops. It was our soldiers standing guard on our generals. When did we outsource military operations and what are the consequences of using “contractors”? Here’s a glimpse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL3csE3YkPs

To begin with there is the cost factor. A corporal in the Army earns about $21,000 a year plus some other benefits. A Blackwater security guardstanding next to that corporal earns about $170,000 and it’s tax free in Iraq. This difference in pay has a detrimental effect on military morale. Think we might be able to hire enough corporals and spec fours to do the job if we upped their pay a bit? Maybe, but Bush has vowed to veto the next military budget because it gives soldiers a 3.5% pay raise instead of the 3% he favors. But I digress again . . .

Next is the way contracts are written for contractor work. In almost all cases contracts are cost plus awards. Whatever it costs, the US government picks up the tab and hands over a profit as well. Not only does the Pentagon award No-Bid contracts but they’re No-Bid Cost-Plus contracts. Would you believe that there is $0 budget for maintenance on vehicles? Drive them until they stop, set fire to them and buy another. Most contractor trucks don’t even carry spare tires; have a flat just set fire to it and get another! Those 18 wheelers are $150,000 apiece! The higher the expenses the more profit dollars they earn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cJlJudDtVE

Then you’ve got to look at performance. When a GI works to support another GI you can count on the job being taken seriously. It’s like packing somebody else’s parachute; you pay real close attention if you know they’re packing yours. Not so with contractors. Take Halliburton for instance. They were charged with providing drinking and sanitation water to our soldiers. When a medic “saw something moving in the toilet” he decided to check the water. No chlorine in the sanitation water and no chlorine in the drinking water. Here is another story of Halliburton’s idea of potable water: After Capt. A. Michelle Callahan treated six infections over a two-week period she discovered the water soldiers were using to bathe, shave and even brush their teeth contained coliform and E. coli bacteria. The water was actually wastewater from a purification unit. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/3780160.html

Finally the question of how the United States looks to the people we’re suppose to be helping. Iraqis don’t see any difference between contractors and US military personnel. They’re all just Americans with guns. Only thing is the Contractors aren’t governed by military law, US law, the Geneva Conventions or anything else. They pretty much do as they please and aren’t held accountable by anyone. There have been accounts of contractor violence against civilians for years. There’s even a video floating around; here’s the short version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcJROVgVqAA and here’s the two and a half minute video edited to music sent back by the contractors who made it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BDByPfIavQ If you can’t watch it the video is shot from inside an SUV’s back window and it shows a machine gun firing into civilian cars that happen to be near.

So there you have it. Your tax dollars at work. Hiring mercenaries to kill civilians at 3-4 times the wages of professional soldiers, paying Halliburton to poison our soldiers and rewarding the sort of behavior that makes the world hate us.

It’s time to bring the troops home. Send Mr. Bush a funding bill with a time line for withdrawal. When he vetoes it send it back. Lather rinse and repeat until the war runs out of money or we fund a reasonable and safe return of our soldiers.