What is Digg?Sponsored by Threadless
This Game Sucks view!
threadless.com - Grab this epic gaming tee for only $12 during the Threadless Holiday Sale!
182 Comments
- BBE1965, on 05/12/2009, -16/+152This illegal war has been nothing but a cash cow to corporations since day one. Billions paid out to KBR to provide water for showers that was essentially sewage.
- GovernmentSp00k, on 05/12/2009, -7/+113http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chXjCtkymRQ These are the same guys that turn around and say "support the troops" right..
- Ryan32, on 05/13/2009, -11/+111This is *****. There are pallets of bottled water all over pretty much every camp I've ever been to.... I covered a LOT of camps between 2003-2007, and never once had any problem getting clean bottled water.
If anything, this is command (company level) that is failing their own units. It's not hard to get clean water (bottled) in Iraq. Hell, theres usually a pallet of the stuff every couple hundred yards, randomly spread across the larger camps. - Black6x, on 05/13/2009, -0/+57I served in Afghanistan in 05-06, and this is nothing new, but it really depends on where you are. I was part of a unit at a Forward Operating Base in the middle of nowhere. Supplies were trucked to us. Amazingly, this was better than my time spent at base further out, where they air-dropped everything (including pallets of OJ).
You can't drink the tap in those places. It's only good for showers and toilets. You use bottled water to brush your teeth and wash your hands before meals. Our problems never got as bad as this unit (although we did have to go back to Kandahar and "find" some equipment that we needed), but the more places something goes, the more that it gets skimmed. Order supplies for your guys in the middle of nowhere, and it has to go through a couple of bases. The most likely points of loss are the large base where all the orders get broken down for their different final destinations, or theft by the locals during transport. It's a pain when your own unit is ***** you.
There was a point where we didn't get milk for weeks. You really don't want to drink sodas and Gatorade all day, and when all you do is work out and do missions, milk is a nutritional need. Anyway, this Special Forces Major from our task force takes a helicopter out to stay for a week see the situation (food and a couple of other things). After about two days, he gets on the phone and proceeds to rip the supply people a couple of new ones just for the milk problem. We never had a shortage again.
A month later, I had to go back to Kandahar. Turns out, not only were they abundant in milk, but they had creature comforts that we had never gotten (papaya and various other juices, etc). - seanstuart, on 05/13/2009, -5/+51How dare CBS question the integrity of Cheney and Rumsfeld's private contractors! Do they want our enemies to win?
- pagit, on 05/13/2009, -0/+40 "Liberating"
- AmazingSteve, on 05/13/2009, -7/+44He said as he commented on Digg. See the irony? Moron.
- Slizzo, on 05/13/2009, -5/+41This ^^^^^^ Even shortly after the "war" started, while I was in Iraq May 2003-July 2004, we never went without water. We did have shortages here and there, but that's because the supply lines were getting ambushed.
Not having water in Iraq is simply a failing of your command to provide you with water. Can't say the same for Afghanistan, as I have never been there, but the guys I talk to that have, they say the same thing; they always had water. They had shortages in the more remote places because they had to have supplies airlifted to them; but they never went without it. - inactive, on 05/13/2009, -7/+42If army units can't get water imagine the civilian population and i dont mean contractor that probably hoard the stuff to resell it at insane prices, i mean iraqis.
- inactive, on 05/13/2009, -7/+41Well old Deadeyedick needs the money so he can buy time on tv to tell you how he saved America for the last eight years.
- juk3box, on 05/13/2009, -2/+35The documentary, "Iraq for Sale" investigated things like how the soldiers were exposed to raw sewage because the contractors didn't actually clean the water because they saved money that way:
http://iraqforsale.org/
It also has other info about the shady contractors in Iraq. - Zaxcomp, on 05/13/2009, -0/+30The water greeted them with open arms.
- KnightMareInc, on 05/13/2009, -12/+41privatizing everything fails again? Shocking
- Silvbird, on 05/12/2009, -8/+35The way we're going we could all be living in Gaza by 2012:
AFGHANISTAN: Thousands of schools lack drinking water, sanitation
KABUL, 12 May (IRIN) - About two million state school students do not have access to safe drinking water and about 75 percent of these schools in Afghanistan do not have safe sanitation facilities, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).
CLICK ON LINK BELOW FOR FULL REPORT
Http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=84336 - sullenbode, on 05/13/2009, -3/+29It's electric sewage and it can kill:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/30/iraq/mai ...
http://blog.buzzflash.com/alerts/444
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/toll-r ... - Redzin, on 05/13/2009, -3/+25Why the ***** are there so many people out there that can't comprehend that things are a little more nuanced than black and white?
***** retards. - bentaisan, on 05/13/2009, -3/+25Water...only the most important consideration throughout the entirety of military history.
Sun Tzu is rolling in his tomb, I am sure. - Harelin, on 05/13/2009, -3/+25Agreed. In my experience, we had to pick up the pallets of water and bring them to our unit ourselves, they weren't delivered by KBR. This article displays an embarrassing failure to communicate the real problem, if there is one, because certainly no one is letting soldiers dehydrate just because of a unit's refusal to go to the KBR facility themselves and retrieve the water.
- Nickolassc, on 05/13/2009, -2/+23Same experience here 2005-2007. Not only did we have the delicious water with the blue label, (I think it came from kuwait?) many bases had their own water treatment and bottling plants. We had so much water we used to give it to the local Iraqis as a goodwill gesture.
- VitriolAndAngst, on 05/13/2009, -2/+20It is illegal in any category you care to measure.
It's just that Congress and the Judicial system are so compromised that they don't provide oversight on anything.
There are a dozen, serious crimes going on right now -- nothing is being done. Banks are getting new loans, after it's clear that they are insolvent -- a massive fraud. The justification for the war was on provision that Bush find a connection with Saddam and 9/11 -- so it isn't even justified in that sense--Congress has not legitimately declared war in decades so MOST of them have been unconstitutional -- not that that seems to matter to anyone on the hill. The UN ruling that gives us some tiny shred of legitimacy is expired.
Our government has been functioning lawlessly for a while now, so it's no wonder that people get the illusion that this is legal. - ChaosProfessor, on 05/13/2009, -1/+19MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
- VitriolAndAngst, on 05/13/2009, -2/+19They only like the troops that are too busy following orders or the dead ones that don't have an opinion. They haven't trotted out the "we must honor the sacrifice of those that have fought before" in a while. I'm sure we are due to repeat that lame-ass excuse.
Since the supporters of this super patriotism without questions have a memory of two months, they can just recycle all the excuses again -- they don't need new ones. - axehind, on 05/13/2009, -2/+18"Robey said in 2003 his company would run out of water on missions, forcing them to improvise, like drinking water from whatever taps they found."
6 years ago dude! - DankBuddz, on 05/13/2009, -0/+16Yea, but we went there to liberate them, not provide them with clean water, right? ... /s
- Rapter09, on 05/13/2009, -1/+16Soldier: "I need water."
CO: "Go find some."
Seriously? This is how the military operates? - AndrewMoyer, on 05/13/2009, -2/+17I think "unconstitutional" is probably what he was meaning, and it is in fact that. Congress never declared war, and the Constitution of the United States of America only grants that power to them.
- sonnybobiche, on 05/13/2009, -0/+14Next time, try a few packets of MRE "Non-Dairy Creamer" with your "Chocolate Beverage Powder" for a field-expedient chocolate milk experience.
- FiveDollarYoBet, on 05/13/2009, -1/+14Same here, back in '05 there were pallets of water scattered all over our FOB, powdered Gatorade packets in the chow hall and company CP and ice was delivered once a day. We also had a freezer in our company CP filled with frozen water bottles (of course they'd be warm by the time you left the gate).
This definitely sounds like a breakdown at the company level. The 1SG should've talked to the contractors and asked where they pick up their water and then sent out a detail. - seanstuart, on 05/13/2009, -3/+15This is to be expected from an administration who believed that the purpose of government is to funnel tax payer dollars to corporate interests and that the lives and well-being of soldiers is a secondary concern to the enrichment of their cronies.
- DankBuddz, on 05/13/2009, -2/+14Oh, yeah since Ryan32 didn't experience it, it didn't happen.
Good call. - inactive, on 05/13/2009, -3/+15'Stealing' it? I prefer to think of it as 'taking' it.
- juk3box, on 05/13/2009, -2/+14These are the joys of the 2 party system. A lack of real competition means neither party has much incentive to change policy. U.S. foriegn policy doesn't change when the other party gains a majority.
- juk3box, on 05/13/2009, -6/+18Please help support "Soldiers for the Truth": http://www.sftt.org/
This group broke the story early on that troops were scavanging around Iraq for scrap metal while the contractors were getting all kinds of federal tax dollars. This website is inspired by david hackworth (see: http://www.hackworth.com/ ) He died in 2005. He was a military veteran who served in Vietnam but then became very critical of the military. He had a reputation for verbal attacks on high ranking military officials for being corrupt. - catbeller, on 05/13/2009, -1/+12Yes. Because you lot had bottled water, the other soldiers did as well. Q.E.D.
Story says that it depended on where you were and what your assignment was.
And your statements do not negate the facts that KBR provided raw pathogen-laden water in the showers, and that soldiers were forced to drink what has no other name but sewage.
And that the native population, ie the country invaded, has been drinking sewage for years. And that the country had clean water before we blew up the water treatment plants because tortured prisoners gave Cheney the "information" that Iraq was involved in 9-11. We did it to ourselves. The soldiers had to drink what we made Iraq drink. - FortyCaliber, on 05/13/2009, -0/+11"Acquired" was the term we used best in the USMC.
- VitriolAndAngst, on 05/13/2009, -4/+15Exactly WHEN is some bastard with connections EVER going to receive justice in this country?
War crimes. Bank fraud. And now going on 7 years of military contractors failing to provide and taking the money. Even murder, apparently, is only enough to get a slap on the wrist and to re-assign a mercenary to abuse people in another country.
Haliburton has electrocuted over 100 soldiers because they overcharge for outsourced an incompetent electricians. Since anyone who stands in the way of a profit gets shafted, and the media is too busy worrying about swine flu and a dozen muggings in Somalia -- this doesn't even make the news.
We cannot continue this way. This is how a failed state works and eventually, everybody is going to wonder why they should follow the rules if nobody with money and power does. - cheesy211, on 05/13/2009, -9/+20Disgusting, and I'm not talking about the water :/
- eryximachus, on 05/13/2009, -2/+13Traditionally, yes.
- aspec, on 05/13/2009, -1/+11Where is Pauly Shore when you need him?
- seanstuart, on 05/13/2009, -3/+13Wrong. Not "by now." And, RTFA - this describes past events, not current ones.
- SpinningHead, on 05/13/2009, -3/+13I'm sure if we sit back and do nothing "the market" will solve these problems for us.
- FiveDollarYoBet, on 05/13/2009, -1/+10Requisitioning without the proper forms.
- cenobyte40000, on 05/13/2009, -5/+14This is a supply staff issue in the companies that are having issues for the most part. A supply Sarge should always know how much s/he needs of expendables and make sure they are ready when needed. Failing this most times a failure on their part and I have seen it be a problem for units deploying into the US for training.
Don't get me wrong I am sure from time to time there are supply issues where stuff is just not getting through. It's a ad-hoc supply chain setup in a war zone, who wouldn't have issues from time to time. While a good supply staff would be ready for this and have extra of the stuff you can't live without, it could become a problem.
No one likes to hear that it's the soliders fault, especially me but we also need to look at this story with some prospective and not point fingers just because we don't like that the contractors make so much money. - esc27, on 05/13/2009, -3/+12'You just had pallets upon pallets upon pallets of (bottled) water"
There's part of the problem right there. Consider all of the excess that goes into making and distributing bottled water in Iraq as compared to something as simple as setting up a water treatment center and just using water trucks and canteens.
One person I know who served in Iraq talked about how the plastic wrapping holding the pallets of bottled water would melt in the heat and spill bottles everywhere down the road.
This is just another example of the combination of corporate greed and pitiful planning that have made this "war" a financial disaster. - DankBuddz, on 05/13/2009, -1/+10Where have you been? How is it not illegal? WTF?
- crj123082, on 05/13/2009, -3/+11Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
- DankBuddz, on 05/13/2009, -0/+8The supply "sarge" isn't in charge of things as important as water supplies, that would go up to the S4 supply officer for the battalion.
- AndrewMoyer, on 05/13/2009, -1/+9Where's Private Scapegoat when you need him?
- TheNik, on 05/13/2009, -0/+8Do you notice it being cloudy in any faucet on your authority or do you only use yours? There could be some kind of sediment build-up or problem in your neighborhood or in your own waterline...
- twystoffate, on 05/13/2009, -7/+15It seems sarcasm is lost on the Digg crowd.
-
Show 51 - 100 of 188 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is