Betrayal of Our Troops, Part Two

On the subject of betraying our troops, I would like to recommend a great book called, Betraying Our Troops: The Destructive Results of Privatizing War. This book was written by two authors, Dina Rasor and Robert Bauman. Both are government fraud experts. In addition to their book, Dina Rasor has a blog, that relates to the book. Although I am in the middle of the book, what I have read defiantly relates to my blog. The book reveals how private contractors have jeopardize the lives of American soldiers while damaging the United States strategic inertest and the U.S. image abroad. The book focuses on KBR, a private contracting company whose job is to provide food and water, but instead gave the troops little food and contaminated water. I feel that this book should be read by all people, so that the government and private contractors are exposed about their wrong doings to the military.

In an earlier positing I briefly mentioned about the private contractors that were ripping off the military. I would like discuss this topic in detail so you get a better understanding. Private contractors are hired by the government. The purpose of private contractors is to support the military by providing food, supplies and clean water. During the Gulf War, this job was done by military members. But as the years have progressed the Defense Department has taken this job away from the soldiers and hired contractors instead. The government claimed that hiring private contractors would be cost efficient. However, there has been much debate on this. To break it down, a Lance Corporal gets paid three dollars an hour during war, whereas a contractor can make up to $100,000 for a six month deployment in Iraq. You do the math. Which one is more expensive? Duh!!! The contractor. So why are we paying contractors to do the same job that once belonged to military? Some say that the military wanted to squeeze these jobs out, so more soldiers would be forced to serve in the infantry division. But I view contractors as making more problems; especially when KBR withheld supplies, food, and clean water to the troops. We all know if the soldiers were still in charge they would never do this to fellow servicemen.

For once, the government should admit that they made a mistake and to reinstate the soldiers to take over the private contractor’s jobs. But then again, the government keeps the contractors for personal benefit. In the world of politics it boils down to who can get ahead and how can they benefit—leaving other people screwed, and in this case it is the servicemen.

The Troop’s Advocator