No, this isn’t as spectacular as Blackwater, but it’s much more disgusting. A reader with extensive military experience writes:
One of the cable channels is running a documentary on Halliburton/KBR. There are reported incidents of gunfire but to me the more significant is the so mundane. They are contracted to provide safe, sanitized drinking and shower water at over 1,000 locations. One of the returned water fixers, trained by the USAF, was fired for reporting over 70 sites with improperly sanitized facilities, “visible bugs in the water.” Marines and Airmen taking showers can get all sorts of nasty bugs just from swallowing the water while showering and some of it won’t show up for months. “This sh*t is coming straight out of the Tigris. When they start getting sick in 6-24 months the military doctors, let alone the civilian doctors, aren’t even going to test for the correct causes!” “We are going to have hundreds sick because of this!” He also said at least 11 other USAF trained guys he knew were also fired in the last year. In the end, the grunts always pay with their bodies and their brains.
In “The Big One” they actually limited profit by contract.
Sen. Webb? Looks like this one’s for you.