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Diary Series, Part II: Sewage With the Bathwater
Yesterday, in Part 1 of this series, “Who's Supporting the Troops?”, I shared part of my interview with Rachel, a formerly deployed soldier in Iraq who experienced first hand the abuse and neglect of private military contractors. Although many people identified with Rachel's incredible story, Rachel requested we not print her last name or rank for purposes of privacy. Rachel's story began by exposing the egregious pay discrepancies between military and civilian contractors. Her experiences teach us that the very idea of hiring these contractors is at once channeling resources away from the troops and placing profit as a priority over the security of our troops.
This reality would be infuriating enough if there wasn't an additional piece compounding this problem: the contractors are doing a poor, and sometimes downright destructive, job. In the case of KBR's performance in fulfilling their contracted service of providing water to the troops, Rachel had much to share with me:
Describe your experience with the KBR water scandal.
I traveled to many bases during my deployment and some were worse than others, but it was nothing compared to the water awaiting me in Camp Ar Ramadi. In Camp Ar Ramadi, we often ran out of water. When our water tanks ran out, we were told we’d have to wait for KBR to come and empty out the bad water and refill our non-potable water. Some days the water smelled like sulfur, other days it smelled like straight sewage. They told us to make sure we kept our mouths closed in the showers when we complained about the smell. I can’t count the number of days I left the showers feeling dirtier than when I went in and many others shared those feelings. I know many soldiers used the water for brushing their teeth or shaving and others even used it for coffee and hot chocolate. Showering almost seems worse than drinking because the skin is so porous.
What sorts of illnesses did you/your fellow soldiers experience? While it’s difficult to say exactly what could have been [attributed] to the water, soldiers' most common complaint was diarrhea; other symptoms included nausea and vomiting, headaches, fever and occasional rashes or other issues with the skin, usually after showering with a cut or other wound. Because this problem affected just about all of us, it became the norm. It wasn’t common to take time off from the mission to go to sick call unless it was really bad. Sometimes though, we would get relief from symptoms while on missions at other bases – only to return back to Ramadi to get sick again.
Of the people you have kept in touch with, have any experienced long term symptoms? Have any received a diagnosis?
When I came home from my deployment, I had a physical with a civilian doctor. Full physicals were not given when we came off of active duty. My doctor said that I had a high amount of bacteria and he wasn’t sure why it was there. Two other females who lived with me also had elevated bacteria levels. I didn’t yet know that the water I showered with was contaminated. It took several months for my stomach problems to stop. It seems that the soldiers who shaved and brushed their teeth with the water from the sinks in the shower trailers are still having symptoms. Another male soldier, who didn’t realize you could shower in the water but not brush your teeth with it continues to have bad stomach problems.
The issue many soldiers are having now is that they do not know what specifically to have the doctor test for. Without accurate information as to what exactly we were exposed to, the doctors can only do so much. Other soldiers have requested testing from the VA and received equally uncertain responses from their doctors. What is more disturbing though, is that very few, if any, of the soldiers have been informed by KBR or the military. We all learned different ways, whether it was in a news story or by word of mouth.
I remember after this scandal broke in the press, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morell at once dismissed this issue and made a joke about it at the troops expense, saying, “I mean, they make it perfectly clear that you don't want to drink the water...[the troops] should read the signs and just drink bottled water."
I don't know what I find more repulsive, the fact that Morell blindly defended the cronies of his superiors at the Pentagon, or the fact that he avoided addressing the real issue of what this water was provided for. This water wasn't given to the troops to drink. It was provided to shower in, and as Rachel points out, this makes the issue all the more serious, because soldiers' bodies were covered in it. As for Morell's comment that the troops should somehow know better, since Rachel points out that they often ran out of water, it makes sense that when the troops received batches of water allocated for hygiene purposes, many of them would use the same water to brush their teeth (and since yesterday's post revealed the abysmal pay the troops were receiving compared to the contractors, do you really think many of them would choose to spend their hard-earned money on bottled water?).
The second aspect to Morell's statement which I find equally disturbing is his blind defense of the contractors. Bear in mind that KBR is a former subsidiary of Dick Cheney's brainchild, Halliburton. This is a poorly disguised case of the administration protecting its own bedfellows and valuing cronyism over the health of American soldiers. Yet these are the folks who have the audacity to call war critics unpatriotic and accuse us of not supporting the troops. Perhaps an act of a true patriot would be to call for the protection of our troops through contractor accountability.
Tomorrow, Rachel will reveal her responses to the reports and investigations regarding the water scandal upon her return to the United States.
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I love all these pictures of Howard--every one gets printed and put on my fridge--keeping him in the news down here in South Texas! Thanks so much.
rd - love that picture - love Howard Dean!!!
A diarist at Kos thinks Sebelius may be Barack's VP pick since she is featured in the Vote for Change video (just came to my inbox).
mary vb -
Indeed about the HD pic.
Well, next state over from ya:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/caitlinharvey/gGBdx9
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... By Caitlin Harvey - May 13th, 2008 at 3:15 pm EDT |
HELENA, MT – The Obama campaign announced today the endorsements of the Crow Nation and the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Ft. Peck Reservation.
...
- thank you Kate - looking forward to part 3
By Thankful2Thankful4Dean on May 13, 2008 3:21 PM EDT
Back in Canada (Dacha at Grand Bend, ON) for 3 weeks, covering Victoria Day and Memorial Day. Trees have leafed out and Garden looks great. Trilliums are gorgeous!
I love trilliums. When we lived in Portland we had a Trillium Festival at the park across from our house. ;-) You can get fined for picking them in Portland.
Trilliums are Ontario's official flower. As such, one can't pick them legally here either--but Trilliums growing on private property can be transplanted. A farmer friend of ours has a woodlot on one of his properties, and brings over 3 or 4 every mother's day. He transplants them in our front yard, which is mainly native wildflowers with a few perrenials (Tulips, daffies, hyacinth, primroses, bluebells, etc.)
Paul Craig Roberts is the real deal--every word a gem!
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts05132008.html
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.
In a new book that will infuriate the fake conservatives who inhabit the Republican Party, Patrick J. Buchanan documents how British self-righteousness, delusion, and hubris destroyed both the British Empire and Western ascendancy in two unnecessary wars launched by a small cabal of morons that ruled Britain
Although Buchanan’s book is about how the British destroyed themselves, Buchanan is clearly thinking about America. In the closing pages Buchanan shows how the Bush Regime has broken from the sound policy of President Reagan and is replicating the British folly of self-destruction. “There is hardly a blunder of the British Empire we have not replicated,” laments Buchanan.
The distinct American hubris that we are “the indispensable nation” and the braggadocio that we are an “omnipower” has us overcommitted in alliances that we cannot fulfill. Despite 25 percent of the Iraqi population killed, injured or displaced, the “world’s only superpower” cannot even control Baghdad. To deal with the pointless war we started in Afghanistan, we have had to sucker our NATO allies into a conflict that is no concern of theirs. Militarily overextended and with a faltering economy and collapsing currency, the cabal of morons that rules America still hopes to attack Iran, Syria, and to drive Hezbollah from Lebanon. American idiots in think tanks are busy at work drawing up plans about how the US is going to check China and prevent her emergence as a power beyond US control. The Republican presidential candidate has boasted that he will challenge Russia and bring Putin to heel.
Amazing.
The world’s greatest debtor is going to take on the two powerful countries with the largest trade surpluses. According to the World Factbook, an annual publication of the CIA, Russia’s 2007 current account surplus is $465 billion and China’s is $363 billion. In contrast, the US current account deficit is $987 billion--an amount larger that the total deficits of all other countries in the world combined. The out-of-pocket and already incurred future cost of Bush’s wars of aggression is between $3 and $5 trillion, every dollar of which must be borrowed. That comes on top of the unfunded liabilities of the US government totaling $53 trillion. By any account the US is the world’s worst credit risk. The “mighty” US relies on foreigners to finance its consumption, its wars, and the daily operations of its government.
There is no possibility of the US closing its trade deficit. The US is able to survive such enormous deficits only because the US dollar is the world reserve currency. This role for the dollar is nearing an end as the world looks for more stable stores of value. Although oil is still nominally priced in dollars, in reality it is being priced in euros as oil producers raise the dollar price with a view to keeping their oil revenues at a constant purchasing power in euros.
When the dollar loses its reserve currency role, foreign financing for US trade and budget deficits will evaporate. US living standards will collapse, and the indispensable omnipower will be just another washed up country.
For a world weary of “American exceptionalism,” this can’t happen too soon.
won't hold impeachment hearings, but at least he's speaking out against war on Iran--something neither of our Dem Presidential Candidates seems willing to do.
http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/link.php?id=59309
House Judiciary Chair John Conyers writes: "As we mark five years of war in Iraq, I have become increasingly concerned that the President may possibly take unilateral, preemptive military action against Iran. During the last seven years, the Bush Admin has exercised unprecedented assertions of Executive Branch power and shown an unparalleled aversion to the checks and balances put in place by the Constitution's framers."
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_chris_ri_080510_the_great_depression.htm
A crashing housing market appeared to be something that could be weathered by other growing sectors of the US/Western economies. Then, the inevitable credit dominoes started to fall, after the mortgage delinquencies fell. Next we entered a scary August and September world credit crisis, as huge forms of liquidity, formerly seeming in endless supply, rapidly dropped to nothing. That would be the securitized credit markets.
The credit market damage is so severe that the largest banks in the US are at risk of losing much of their capital. Citibank alone said it needs to raise $30 billion in capital. If the 5 largest banks in the US are already in crisis mode, and other major banks in the EU too, and don't forget Canada, England and so on, things look incredibly negative.
Congress & the President scrambled to sign in a multi-billion dollar stimilus package. But where does the money come from? The government will borrow the money from China & Saudi Arabia to pay for the rebate, which is projected to cost $117 billion over the next two years, adding to the federal deficit. The Federal government owes $53.3 trillion in future obligations that it has no ability to pay. The Government Accountability Office has sounded the alarm, but neither the politicians nor the American people are listening.
well, blog is screwed up - have to reply to myself to link.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/13/wv.primary/index.html
The headline is basically *WV shows Obama's weakness*. What about all those states where Obama slaughtered Hillary - Idaho, Nebraska, Kansas, Virginia, Washington, etc. Clinton is the weak candidate. I really loathe our traditional media. Good grief.
I knew I read this somewhere that Barack couldn't take his campaign money to pay off Clinton's debt, see last paragraph...
"Among her options is transferring that debt to her Senate campaign committee and paying it off with contributions to her 2012 re-election effort.
But, for the short term, many Democrats believe the answer lies with Obama and his vast network of contributors.
"That is a normal thing when a candidate finishes a race and loses, the winning candidate would try to help if there's some debt that's been incurred," said Tad Devine, a Democratic consultant who has worked in several presidential campaigns but is unaligned this year.
By law, Obama cannot write a massive check from his flush campaign account to hers. But Obama donors, large and small, might be willing to donate to Clinton in the name of party unity"...
- But Obama donors, large and small, might be willing to donate to Clinton in the name of party unity"...
By Karen on May 13, 2008 5:02 PM EDTNOT!!!
It would be rewarding the person most responsible for fomenting party division. Sets a bad precedent for future campaigns and dividers.
- rovian Clinton rumor to cut Obama's funding before the crucialMontana vote, lol
By Phil Specht on May 13, 2008 5:25 PM EDT
- the kid in KY who sold his bike and gave money to Bubba
By mary vb on May 13, 2008 5:29 PM EDTThe kid who sold his bicycle and gave the money to Pres. Clinton in KY should be reimbursed by Clinton with a brand new bicycle. Imagine the nerve of the former POTUS to take the $440 from the 11 yr old boy. He should be ashamed of himself knowing full-well that Hillary cannot get the nomination. He'll gain some brownie points from me if he does the right thing.
- Louisiana State University road trip with my son and his friends visitingthe north country headed up into MN to catch a Twins game and then on to the birthplace of the Father of Waters
By Phil Specht on May 13, 2008 5:27 PM EDTsorry for the shouting but I am trying to figure out how to capture and keep a tool bar
- Hellary campaign still *spinning* out of control...
By Karen on May 13, 2008 5:32 PM EDTClinton spokesman Howard Wolfson: "I think Democrats across the country tomorrow will be asking themselves why Senator Obama — with all of his money, with all of the great press, with voters being told he was the inevitable nominee — why did Senator Obama lose West Virginia by 15 points or so?" he asked on NBC's "Today" show.
"What does it say about his candidacy at this date that he can't beat Senator Clinton in a key swing state?"
- Because West Virginia is the most white, most red neck State in the Union
By Fred from Oregon on May 13, 2008 5:37 PM EDTGet real Wolfie - you know why
Elections are a voter action. The suggestion that voters make up their minds on the basis of ads and jingles is really insulting. Seems like Wolfson needs to go back to selling soap flakes.
- Trail of tears turns to trials, but who knows how many have been "disappeared" with no record of names and no habeus.
By Phil Specht on May 13, 2008 5:33 PM EDTI hope they come up with at least one bad guy for their effort, since the costs run into the hundreds of thousands.
"show me your papers" isn't just a phrase heard from behind the iron curtain anymore
welcome to amerika
Has even the approval rating he has. Hitler was elected with 20% of the vote.
- Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause
By Fred from Oregon on May 13, 2008 5:44 PM EDT...The contrast between the large, adoring crowds Obama draws at public events and the gritty street-level work to win votes is stark. The candidate is largely insulated from the mean-spiritedness that some of his foot soldiers deal with away from the media spotlight.
...The bigotry has gone beyond words. In Vincennes, the Obama campaign office was vandalized at 2 a.m. on the eve of the primary, according to police...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/12/AR2008051203014.html?hpid=topnews
This photo is very telling.
The Farmers for Obama headquarters in Vincennes, Ind., was vandalized on the eve of that state's May 6 primary. (By Ray Mccormick)
PHOTO: http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2008/05/12/PH2008051203098.jpg
---
I hope they left that office that way for a few days. That whole community needs to be able to see their shame.
Americans need to awake-up to what is happening in their own neighborhoods and being allowed to continue in their own public and chartered school systems. Please know the folks who sit on your local school board(s) and who or what got them elected. Pay close attention to those who are being elected and re-elected as your County's Sheriff, District Attorney and Supervisors. There is wisdom and truth in the saying, "all politics is local".
I dearly love my home state of Indiana but there are still some things about it and about it's history that no Hoosier or any American should be proud of. When you make a mistake it's a good practice to admit the error, apologize and correct it. To do so is a sign of maturity. It is wise to know about the good and to also know about the bad. IMHO political operatives need to stop their immoral and unethical practices of digging up old hatchets during elections just to win and start learning how to bury them publicly instead. All the 9/11 fear propaganda from the Bush Administration and the corporate media has brought out a lot of what was once whispered during 'polite' political conversations while at business meetings, at the local garden club, on the golf course, at private cocktail parties, before and after Sunday services or during family reunions while the children over look old picture albums. All children learn early and are rather intuitive in their nature as to what is important to their survival within their community and their family unit. The prejustice of bigtory and the unknown fears that causes it is not limited to just race, gender and class. A human should always be encouraged to conquer the animal and warlike nature in itself. No knowing person should ever allow anybody's mean-spirited ignorance to take advantage of their good nature or the human innocence within their communities. It is an noble act to stand up against the tyranny of fear and do the right thing even when doing so doesn't feed your own stomach's ego.
http://democracyforamerica.com/blog_posts/25265-republican-infighting-of-biblical-proportions#comments
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