Despite its long and colorful history of oppression and maltreatment of other countries, the United States makes a point of treating its own troops to the best of what the country has to offer. Yes, U.S. soldiers receive the best of everything in return for their service to the people - so rumor has it. Unfortunately, the truth is as it has always been: Mismanagement, corner-cutting and sub-par products are the domain of the average soldier.
According to a Jan. 22 Associated Press article, both troops and civilians at a U.S. military base in Iraq were exposed to contaminated water for about a year.
The contractor responsible for the water, Halliburton, refused to inform those living at the base, despite being alerted to the contamination.
Despite the fact that the allegations of contamination were made by Halliburton's own employees, the company - which, incidentally, was the formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney - has outright denied the claims.
According to documents written by William Granger, the Halliburton official in charge of water in Iraq and Kuwait, "The level of contamination was roughly 2x the normal contamination of untreated water from the Euphrates river."
This problem, according to the former water expert, was documented in e-mails made the day after the discovery, which occurred last March. The contaminated water was not being used for drinking, but every other facility on the base - bathing, hand washing, laundry and coffee making - utilized the water.
Another employee on the base, Ken May, said many people at the base experienced both diarrhea and stomach cramps. Despite this, a spokeswoman for Halliburton said the company's inspection showed no evidence of contaminated water or concrete evidence to back up health-related allegations. This is very odd, as water expert Ben Carter noted in a March 24 memo to Halliburton, detailing a report on tests run the previous day. Carter's memo stated: "It is my opinion that the water source is without question contaminated with numerous micro-organisms, including Coliform bacteria."
"There is little doubt that raw sewage is routinely dumped upstream of intake much less than the required 2 mile distance."
When Carter informed Halliburton officials they would have to notify the military, he was told to keep his mouth shut.
This sort of problem isn't unprecedented, since Halliburton has had a number of problems and military audits concerning its poor conduct in Iraq. This should come as no surprise to shrewd analysts, as congressional Democrats have claimed the Bush administration has been giving the company noncompetitive contracts.
Let me restate that: The Bush administration is giving Halliburton the exclusive right to handle numerous affairs in Iraq, meaning the company has no competition and biased support from the people who should be monitoring it. Under conditions like these, what reason does Halliburton have not to cut corners?
Does it strike anyone else as a problem when the people in power have no qualms about offering a business complete control of commodities given to their soldiers, fail to monitor the company they've good-ol'-boy-ed into the job and fail to do anything about it when problems arise? The politicians must have known about the problems, considering the company belonged to the vice president of the United States.
This is what the people we have trusted with the fate of our nation are allowing to happen to the people who are expected to lay down their lives for it - and they will continue to do so, if we let them.
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