Dying for a cupcake: Military risking soldiers’ lives to protect contractors delivering amenities to warzone.

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I first heard about this before the 2004 election: U.S. soldiers being used to protect convoys delivering “non-essential” goods to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The story never got much traction and it was assumed by most that after the story was uncovered, “private security” contractors would be used instead. And for the most part, this is probably true when it comes to “commercial” goods sent into a warzone. But for those items produced by the Army itself, those goods are still “military issue” and receive the armed protection of American soldiers, risking their lives to ensure the delivery of those goods. At a time when President Bush is seeking to feed another 21,500 soldiers into this meat grinder called Iraq, and Congress asking what are these soldiers to be used for, I think it is important to look at how they’ve been used in the past and ask if this is why we need more now.

This is an issue that has bothered me for a while now. Bush’s new “contractor-crazy cash cow conflicts” in the Middle East have a built-in incentive to be dragged out for as long as possible. In June 2005, PBS’s “Frontline” did an investigative story on all the private security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hired to protect diplomats and high-ranking officials visiting Iraq, it’s not uncommon for private security contractors to be paid $1000 a day to do THE EXACT SAME JOB American soldiers do for $90 a day ($2700 a month)… except that private security contractors can quit and go home if they want.

But those are “security” contractors. Then there are the “delivery guys”.

A division of Halliburton, “Kellogg, Brown & Root” (KBR) handles most of the “rudimentary” chores of military life such as doing laundry and providing meals. They also deliver goods & materials requested by the army, such as fuel for Humvees and ammunition. The theory being that every soldier not wasting time “peeling potatoes while on K.P.” (kitchen patrol) is one more soldier freed up to fight in battle. But trucking in “necessities” is nowhere near as common as deliveries of UN-necessary items.

And just what are these goods that soldiers are risking their lives to protect? Would you believe hamburger meat, eggs, flour and… well, read on.

Certainly no one wants to deny our troops a few creature comforts to make being away from home for so long a little easier. But there is fine line… scratch that… a 300 mile “Highway of Death”… between “comfort” and “extravagance”.

I was reminded of this recently while reading my January 2007 issue of “Vanity Fair” (the standard-bearer of Pulitzer-worthy Liberal reporting. If you don’t subscribe, you should) and a story that had NeoCons howling when they posted a preview one day before the November mid-terms called “Neo-Culpa“… 12 famed neo-conservatives now recanting their support for invading Iraq and criticizing President Bush’s handling of the war.

Late in the article, former assistant Secretary of Defense and PNAC founding member Richard Perle, often called “the Architect of the Iraq War” (an “unfair” label according to Perle because “no one ever asked me how to do it“), recalls an event revealed to him:

[…] an Iraqi cabinet minister [told him about] a friend who was asked to lease a warehouse in Baghdad to a contractor for the Americans in the Green Zone. It turns out they were looking for someplace to store ice for their drinks. […] Weren’t the Americans making ice as and when they needed it? Then he learned the extraordinary truth: that the ice was trucked in from Kuwait, 300 miles away in regular convoys. The convoys, says Perle, “came under fire all the time. So we were sending American forces into harms way, with full combat capability to support them, helicopters overhead, to move g#d-damned ice from Kuwait to Baghdad.”

Back in ‘04 when I first heard about such frivolous risk to soldiers lives, I remember one video taken of a mess hall inside Iraq. Shown at one end of the serving line was a rotating refrigerated dessert “showcase” filled with frosted cakes and cream pies. The reporter asked, “Who risked their life to deliver the ingredients to make those cakes?” I don’t quite remember the convoluted military-jargon excuse he got in return… something about “nothing is too good for our men in uniform”… but the question was never sufficiently answered. For the most part, after such an embarrassment, I (and probably most people like me) just assumed that peoples’ lives were no longer being put at risk for something so petty. I… of course… was wrong.

Then last December, just before Christmas, one of the TV morning shows (”Good Morning America”? “Today”?) set up a video-conference between a soldier in Iraq and his girlfriend whom they brought into the studio. Early into the tearful reunion, the soldier proposed marriage and the morning shows’ hosts presented her with an engagement ring that the soldier had purchased in advance. The host asked the obvious question: “You’ve been in Iraq for nearly a year. Did you buy the ring a year ago and hold onto it all this time?” “Oh no,” he responded, “We’ve got jewelry stores here!”

Now, unless this soldier strayed off base, out of the Green Zone and into the streets of Iraq to find an open jewelry store, I’m fairly confident “here” referred to “Camp Victory”, where he was based. That means someone was risking their life to deliver jewelry into a warzone for soldiers to send back home to their loved ones. The person driving the delivery truck may be willingly assuming the risk, knowing what s/he is risking their life for, but soldiers the military sends out to guide and sometimes protect them… don’t. And as for the corporations providing these extravagant services? Well, the REAL money isn’t in the sales, it’s in the trucking and security provided to make those deliveries. The government is reimbursing Halliburton generously for laundry services, meals, and food deliveries. What is actually IN the trucks doesn’t matter. They get paid just the same, be it ammunition or cake frosting. Doesn’t matter to them. They get paid by the shipment.

Most of us have already seen the video of a KBR trucker that videotaped the ambush of his convoy in Iraq.

You also may have noticed the military vehicles escorting them. Apparently, risking soldiers’ lives to protect contractor convoys is still routine in Bush’s “No War-Profiteer Left Behind” escapade in Iraq. If you were to join the military “to fight for your country”, how would you feel if you were to die protecting a shipment of this:

or this…

or this…

Are these things worth risking our soldiers’ lives for?

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(Side Note: I plan on doing another mid-week Special Edition following President Bush’s State of the Union address tomorrow/Tuesday. Check back on Wednesday for that update.)

This entry was posted on January 22, 2007 at 1:11 am and is filed under Political News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.