In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
Halliburton: costing lives, money, and delivering nothing.
APArmy defends using soldiers as escorts for contractors"We have coalition troops, to include the (Missouri) unit in question, routinely providing security for civilian convoys which provide food, fuel and supplies for coalition troops throughout Iraq," Capt. Patrick Swan, a spokesman for the Combined Joint Task Force in Baghdad, said in an e-mail response to an inquiry from The Associated Press.So KBR (Halliburton) gets a contact to deliver food or fuel to the troops. The savings to the Pentagon is supposed to be that it frees up our manpower for other purposes and that the private firm would be more efficient then the Pentagon at supplying these services.
"This security can be through military vehicles escorting trucks, or the placing of coalition troops within the cabs of civilian trucks to provide additional firepower," Swan said.
So what we get is an integral part of the military misssion (supplies... you ain't fighting the enemy without food or fuel) that stops working when combat begins (what? combat? in a war), and thus having any cost or efficiency benefit go out the window, plus jeapordizing the mission. Then to get supplies through when things calm down a bit our military has be babysit the supplier. We have soldiers riding shotgun for drivers paid 4 times more and who can legally just cut and run if any trouble happens. KBR gets the money we get to have our soldiers risk their lives sitting in the cab of unprotected trucks.
Nice one Rummy.
- rob 4:27 PM - [PermaLink] -
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