The lawsuit also accuses KBR of shipping ice in mortuary trucks that "still had traces of body fluids and putrefied remains in them when they were loaded with ice. This ice was served to U.S. forces.".... Eller also accuses KBR of failing to maintain a medical incinerator at Joint Base Balad, which has been confirmed by two surgeons in interviews with Military Times about the Balad burn pit. Instead, according to the lawsuit and the physicians, medical waste, such as needles, amputated body parts and bloody bandages were burned in the open-air pit.... "Wild dogs in the area raided the burn pit and carried off human remains," the lawsuit states. "The wild dogs could be seen roaming the base with body parts in their mouths, to the great distress of the U.S. forces."
I'm not relating this story merely to beat up on Republicans and the inept neoConservatives thugs in the White House, though this would certainly seem to provide ample ammunition to do exactly that. No, that would be far too easy. The reason I'm talking about this issue is that far too many in the "Of course I'm patriotic; I have a yellow ribbon on my SUV" crowd crow about their love of and devotion to our men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, too many of these maroons are willingly, nay, eagerly ignorant of the horrifically substandard conditions they are subjected in the name of commerce.
This horrific story is hardly the first instance of what our troops have been subjected to by contractors eager to make as much money as possible off the government gravy train. Soldiers, trained to obey as they are and a captive audience, are seldom in much of a position to complain. And it's not as if KBR has exactly been a good corporate citizen as they carried out their mission under the terms of their various and sundry government contracts. Time and time and time again, KBR has revealed itself to be far more concerned with it's own bottom line and maximizing it's profit potential than in caring for the troops they committed to providing for.
Why someone...SEVERAL someones...isn't going to prison for this naked, unbridled criminality is something I will never understand. Then again, being a Republican in charge of no-bid contracts means never having to say you're sorry. Or worry about being held to account for your greed and self-interest.
