Barracks for Charlie CO 2/508 82n Airborne

A father takes a video of the barracks his son and other troops live in when they return from serving in the mountains of Afghanistan.

While we enrich the contractors and spend a trillion dollars on a war, we then expect our troops to live like this. WTF is wrong with this nation?



h/t to Digby (Godde bless her) and to Vet Voice and the Fayetteville (NC) Observer - and Mr. Edward Frawley who took the video and spoke up!
--the BB

Homeland Security? We'll talk forever but we won't do anything real about it.

Keeping Us Safe
by mcjoan
Thu Mar 16, 2006 at 08:34:51 PM PDT

While the New McCarthyites scream about Russ Feingold aiding the terrorists and endangering national security by pointing out that Bush broke the law (and having the temerity to actually try to do something about it), some of their own actually ARE damaging national security. House Republicans today blocked funding for port security and disaster preparedness. From Think Progress:

The Sabo amendment included:
- $300 million to enable U.S. customs agents to inspect high-risk containers at all 140 overseas ports that ship directly to the United States. Current funding only allows U.S. customs agents to operate at 43 of these ports.
- $400 million to place radiation monitors at all U.S. ports of entry. Currently, less than half of U.S. ports have radiation monitors.
- $300 million to provide backup emergency communications equipment for the Gulf Coast.
Meanwhile, the Bush budget - which most of the members who voted against this bill will likely support - contains an increase of $1.7 billion for missile defense, a program that doesn't even work.

Update [2006-3-16 22:57:6 by mcjoan]: georgia10 adds this:

Lieberman Amdt No. 3034; To protect the American people from terrorist attacks by providing $8 billion in additional funds for homeland security government-wide, by restoring cuts to vital first responder programs in the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice, by providing an additional $1.2 billion for first responders, $1.7 billion for the Coast Guard and port security, $150 million for chemical security, $1 billion for rail and transit security, $456 million for FEMA, $1 billion for health preparedness programs, and $752 million for aviation security.

REJECTED by Republicans.

Menendez Amdt. No. 3054; To provide an additional $965 million to make our ports more secure by increasing port security grants, increasing inspections, improving existing programs, and increasing research and development, and to fully offset this additional funding by closing tax loopholes.

REJECTED by Republicans.

Stabenow Amdt. No. 3056; To provide $5 billion for our emergency responders so that they can field effective and reliable interoperable communications equipment to respond to natural disasters, terrorist attacks and the public safety needs of America's communities and fully offset this by closing tax loopholes and collecting more from the tax gap.

REJECTED by Republicans.

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/vote_menu_109_2.htm


And remember all the recent brouhaha about KBR providing contaminated water to the troops? Well, I knew it was old "news" and here's my proof from two years ago today! [Remember, KBR was formerly a subsidiary of Halliburton. And Dick Cheney is the former CEO of Halliburton who still owns oodles of Halliburton stock and gets richer as Halliburton makes money.]

Halliburton didn't protect water supply for US soldiers
by Joe in DC - 3/16/2006 07:34:00 PM
Cheney's old colleagues really are bastards:
Halliburton Co. failed to protect the water supply it is paid to purify for U.S. soldiers throughout Iraq, in one instance missing contamination that could have caused "mass sickness or death," an internal company report concluded.

The report, obtained by The Associated Press, said the company failed to assemble and use its own water purification equipment, allowing contaminated water directly from the Euphrates River to be used for washing and laundry at Camp Ar Ramadi in Ramadi, Iraq.
Shouldn't someone go to jail for endangering the lives of our troops?

Oh yeah, that would be the president.

Republicans = incompetence.
Permanent Link

Here's the recent stuff [Associated Press article in the Toronto Star]:

WASHINGTON–An internal Pentagon report obtained by The Associated Press concludes dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq have become sick at bases using "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water.

The Pentagon's inspector general found water quality problems between 2004 and 2006 at two locations run by the U.S. military and three sites run by contractor KBR.

The problems affected water used for washing, bathing, shaving and cleaning, but not for drinking.

The report says the water was smelly and discoloured and left soldiers with a number of skin ailments and intestinal problems.

In a statement, KBR says its water treatment has met or exceeded all applicable military and contract standards.

KBR is a former subsidiary of Halliburton, the company once headed by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney.

Think Progress followed up when the Pentagon made light of it:

On Sunday, the AP reported that contractor KBR has been providing “unmonitored and potentially unsafe” water to U.S. troops in Iraq. According to a Pentagon Inspector General’s report, dozens of soldiers fell sick, suffering “skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses” after using the “discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry.”

In a press briefing on Monday, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell dismissed KBR’s gross negligence. He responded by joking about how everyone knows the water in Iraq is unsafe, and advised everyone to avoid drinking it:

--the BB

Poisoning our troops

Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars has some goodies for us to contemplate:

It takes a strong stomach to make it through this edition of the ongoing list of Bush administration scandals. First up is the story we brought you yesterday of the permanent hearing damage being sustained by our troops at alarming levels. And the saddest part is that it might have been at least partially prevented:

Some Marines were issued a $7.40 pair of double-sided earplugs, with one side designed to protect from weapons fire and explosions, the other from aircraft and tank noise. But the Marines were not given instructions in how to use the earplugs, and some cut them in half, while others used the wrong sides, making the devices virtually useless, Hoffer said. Today, instructions are handed out with the earplugs.

Then there is the disgusting and criminally negligent story of troops in Iraq with skin abscesses and infections, cellulitis and other nasty symptoms because the water used for washing –clothes and body–had not met basic sanitary standards, courtesy of Dick Cheney’s favorite no-bid company: KBR. I guess you can say “Dirty war, dirty water“. At least the troops had clean drinking water. The incidences of cholera in Iraq for civilians has steadily risen since the invasion.

I want to point out that the troops did NOT have clean drinking water.

Kellogg Brown, & Root (KBR) a former subsidiary of Vice President Dick Cheney’s former company of Halliburton was named in a recent report released by the Pentagon saying that it did not maintain the standards for safe drinking water.

The Pentagon has explained in a report that KBR which was once controlled by Halliburton had failed to maintain the standards for the sanitation of the drinking water at various sites throughout Iraq. As a result, many United States troops have been diagnosed with all sorts of illnesses due to drinking the water. [source here]

Now, why did Halliburton and what was then its subsidiary, KBR, get all those no-bid contracts almost instantly when we invaded and occupied Iraq?

Not too hard to connect the dots.

Cheney should be headed to the Hague, not Saudi Arabia.
--the BB

Tragic math

John Cory has a guest post up at Hoffmania. I took the lines in the graphic above from it. He writes:

The folks who see profit and growth in the numbers of veterans of this war, the Health Care Insurers know an opportunity when they see one. In her December 2007 report Emily Berry for American Medical News gives us a tour by the numbers:

30,000 troops have been wounded in action.
39,000 have been diagnosed with PTSD.
84,000 vets suffer a mental health disorder.
229,000 veterans have sought VA care.
1.4 million troops (active duty and reserves) deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan so far.
Estimates run between $350 billion to $700 billion needed for lifetime care and benefits for veterans.

And now, making the rounds in Washington is a plan that has become known as “The Psychological Kevlar Act of 2007” which reaches out to the pharmaceutical industry to partner with the Department of Defense to use the drug Propranalol to treat symptoms of PTSD even before a soldier succumbs to full blown PTSD. An ounce of prevention after all is worth funding for experimentation, I mean research. A numb soldier is a happy soldier.

The reason I keep harping on the lying s*** ** **** that is George W. Bush is because his lies have consequences in the lives of millions. The lies that led us into Iraq have huge consequences that most of us ignore as we go through our days. Unless we have lost a family member of friend. Or someone we love comes back maimed.

Injured is such a wimpy word. I remember seeing on public transporation in France back in the late 60s the notice that we were to yield seats to the "mutilés de guerre"--those mutilated by war. Believe me, I do not have a photographic memory. That phrase, however, is obviously going to haunt me for the rest of my life.

I realize that words, the labels we attach to people, have impact. This is why we avoid using such a searing phrase. One would not say, "This is my friend Chad; he got mutilated in Iraq." It's too brutal. Yet it is also the truth of what happens day after day. Because of lies. Orchestrated lies.

Cory also notes this: "In 2005 alone, there were 6,256 veteran suicides. That’s 120 every week or an average of 17 suicides every day." [emphasis mine]

You really need to read all of Cory's article.

Then have a good cry.

Then get angry enough to do something about the war criminals in the White House.

UPDATE 1:
Speaking of lies, when Bush asserts or implies that "the surge is working" one should always bear in mind that the escalation (aka "surge) had a stated purpose when it was proposed: creating a more stable environment in which political progress could be made by the Iraqis. Violence may well be down (though far from eliminated) but political progress is not being made. Kudos to the troops but, in terms of its purpose, it's not working.

Blue Texan at Firedoglake writes:

Since the surge was announced, 937 Americans have been killed in Iraq. Last month, more Americans were killed than in June, 2003. For...what exactly? So that Iraq may at some point get around to getting some of the things on Bush's laundry list done, so that may in turn lead to some form of government that's possibly functional at some point in the future. Great.

A reduction in violence to 2003 levels was not the goal of the surge. Political reconciliation was. BushCo doesn't need our help in rewriting history. And we sure as hell shouldn't be applauding a failed policy that has taken the lives of 937 more Americans and who knows how many Iraqis just so Bush could pass the buck to the next President.

UPDATE 2:
James Carroll wrote in the Boston Globe yesterday:

YOU AND everyone you love are riding on a large bus. The bus driver, unskilled and careless, drives too fast, ignores traffic signals, and barrels off the road occasionally. Because the bus is huge, other vehicles swerve to get out of its way, with cars crashing repeatedly. But your driver just keeps going, leaving carnage in his wake. Naturally, you are terrified - but your reactions are irrelevant.

Finally, the bus itself crashes, killing many. Miraculously, you and your loved ones climb out of the wreckage. A second bus is standing by, and you gratefully scramble aboard. The engine starts up, but then the bus lurches dangerously onto the road, going too fast. Only then do you see that this new bus has the same driver, and he has learned nothing. Welcome to the United States of America. And welcome to the annual State of the Union address.

h./t to Dan Froomkin at the Washington Post for this one.


--the BB

Pentagon reporting 1 in 5 with brain injuries

Crooks and Liars reports the following horrific news:

On The Chris Matthews show, Richard Stengel, the managing editor of TIME gives us a chilling new report that the Pentagon is releasing about the serious head injuries our troops are sustaining in Iraq.

Stengel: When we got into the Iraq war we didn’t know how long it would last. When we got into the Iraq war we didn’t know how much it would cost. It’s lasted longer, it’s cost more than we ever expected. The real toll is coming out now. The Pentagon is releasing a report saying, one in five American serviceman and women who have been in Iraq are coming back with brain injuries. Mild, traumatic brain injuries. More than 250,000 people. That legacy of that will last all of our life times and it’s incalculable.

It is incalculable and unforgivable, but it would appear that Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney still sleep very well at night.

It is very difficult to even contemplate this. One among many horrors perpetrated in our name.

UPDATE (PRAYERS):

For those in the Armed Forces of our Country

Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For those who suffer from war

Into thy merciful hands, O Father, we commit all who suffer in a world torn by war.  Grant them the continual knowledge of thy presence.  Let not tribulations or distress or persecution or famine of nakedness or peril or sword separate them from the love of Christ.  Bless the very old and the very young; the leaders and the followers; civilians and warriors; doctors and nurses.  Fortify the bereaved, give peace to the dead.  And may the world's agony, which lies upon thy heart, so quicken our conscience and stir up our wills that we may give ourselves unsparingly to the building of righteousness and brotherhood, as true children of our Father and makers of peace, through him who came to redeem all people, our Saviour Jesus Christ.

--John Wallace Suter (1859-1942), alt.

--the BB

Go to hell

Keith Olbermann comes through again.

A few comments on how the government treats our troops.



h/t to Hoffmannia whence I got the video.
--the BB