Wow, soldiers dissing Halliburton, Bechtel big time!

[priller]

This is from another thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1073258#1073861

The interview with two soldiers covers many topics on the cluster-fuck that is Iraq, but I thought the comments concerning Halliburton and the other contractors deserved a thread of its own. Here's a sample:

O1- Every day that we stay in Iraq, the resistance builds, and the attacks are bigger and more prevalent. We are going to see many more US soldiers die because of the failure of the US to live up to their basic promises. In the end it is the basic line grunt that is the victim of the Bush regimes drive for oil and profits. You won't see one of the senator's kids over there. You will not see one of the board members of Halliburton, Bechtel, KBR, or the other big contractors losing a son or daughter. All they are going to do is make money and send more troops to guard their convoys and assets.

We can't even go out in convoy with anyone from Halliburton or Bechtel without drawing a crowd of angry Iraqis. They hate the Halliburton and Bechtel guys worse than they hate the soldiers. It's like painting a target on your back just to travel with those contractors and try to protect them.

O2- Let me jump in here. I want to say that I am extremely mad that Halliburton and Bechtel have better equipment than our own troops do. The contractors have fully armored Hummers and the best body armor. The have us escort them in our lightly armored Humvees and they ride in heavily armored vehicles. That is bullshit and every American needs to know about it. It's been in the paper recently about how bad the casualties have been from the older Hummers. Our vehicles don t provide adequate protection, and that is a fucking outrage that needs to be fixed.

O1- I was getting to that, and it is a big problem. I think about 80 percent of my unit casualties were coming from the Humvee crews. Do you know that bullets go through an older hummer like it's made of paper? Most of the hummers have canvas tops and plastic windows. If an IED (improvised explosive device) hits you from the side, you are going to get hurt or killed if you are in an older, lightly armored hummer.

[9215]

1. HOT!! Very powerful stuff!

This is raw, hard hitting front line talk from the grunts on the ground:

.......You won't see one of the senator's kids over there. You will not see one of the board members of Halliburton, Bechtel, KBR, or the other big contractors losing a son or daughter. All they are going to do is make money and send more troops to guard their convoys and assets..........

[arcane1]

oh, I HAVE to send this to my dad...

and DARE his ass to blame THIS on the Clenis!!!

:grr:

The Bush Administration:

HATES AMERICA

HATES FREEDOM

PISSES ON THE TROOPS

[priller]

2. BTW, here's the link to the interview article

Two US Soldiers ask: "When will we stop dying so senselessly?"

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_4893.shtml

[Cleita]

3. Yes, this does deserve it's own thread.

Why isn't Rumsfeld being grilled by the media about the danger our soldiers are in because of them? This should be sent to an independent journalist who might care to do a story on it. I can't think of one off hand right now, maybe Gore Vidal.

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. Why are US troops being used

to guard and protect the assets of these private corporations? Why doesn't Halliburton and Bechtel hire their own security if they want to be in Iraq?

[arcane1]

5. using the troops as "venture capital"

typical of this bunch, they use the public funds to cover the up-front costs, and privatize the profits. You can't lose!

kind of like the Texas Rangers stadium

:grr:

[indepat]

18. Easy: they make more money this way

[m-jean03]

6. Question -- How do the Iraqis know these guys are from Halliburton

and Bechtel? I don't understand, help me here? It is this comment that makes me doubt this article's authenticity a bit. It doesn't seem like the contractors would advertise who they were working for. Thanks.

[priller]

9. The fact that they have newer Humvees and equipment and

always have military escort, I would imagine they're probably not too hard to pick out.

[SalParadise]

7. Working w/Bechtel on a project now...

The company I work for has contracted these guys for a HUGE project across the country & in my state (at least) these guys wreck everything they touch. No regard for the final job, I think their tool set consists of a hammer, paperclips & duct tape.

I'd always hoped they were doing a somewhat better job in Iraq, but it's obviously not the case.

WORST. COMPANY. EVER.

[jmags]

10. Isn't Bechtel the company that has royally

screwed up in Boston's Big Dig?

[Malva Zebrina]

8. Sad

It's like painting a target on your back just to travel with those contractors and try to protect them

Is this how we bring "freedom" to the Iraqi people? Why are troops being used to protect contractors? Are they not repsonsible for their own security? We don't use troops in our own country to protect contrators. This is absurd. Our troops are being killed while protecting contractors?

Sad. :cry: Bush is a war criminal using our boys and girls as his private little pawns, and don't think he doesn't get a hard on thinking of how he has the power to keep them all under his thumb, to get his buddies their oil and other contracs. He is despicable. May the troops revolt against their despicable AWOL wannabee air craft carrier pilot , landing on a carrier with a faked photo op, in full costume, strutting about like an ass, while the troops he sends to kill others are there to protect the contractors?

Bring em home now. Outa there. Let the Iraqi's figure it out and they will and they will have their own resources to figure out how to distribute it. It is their oil in thier country and it is Israel's misfortune to be so near to an enemy, but we are not responsible for them at all. Our boys and girls, five hundred forty or so more, are dead and how many Israeli? No we need outa there--period.

We cannot have one more American troop die for this farce and under the evilness of the combination of Bush and Sharon.(or the PNAC)

[IkeWarnedUs]

11. About the author - Jay Shaft

I thought the name looked familiar, so I checked. Sure enough, this is the same guy who wrote similar articles about soldiers bitching last October. I only saved the first 3 in the series.

US Soldiers to America: ''Bring us home now; we’re dying for oil and corporate greed!''
Part 1 in a 5 part series
Interviews by Jay Shaft
Coalition For Free Thought In Media
12th October 2003
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0310/S00105.htm

Part 2
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0310/S00116.htm

Part 3
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0310/S00142.htm

When these articles were circulating I was asking who Jay Shaft was.
The organization he is associated with, Coalition For Free Thought In Media, is a Yahoo group. His only credentials I have been able to find is the Yahoo group.

I Googled him then and now. He has written a lot of anti war/Bush pieces, but they are all either opinion pieces or anonymous interviews - like this.

That doesn't make the pieces any less powerful - and a lack of professional credentials doesn't make the interviews bogus.

But since the subjects are all anonymous and can't be verified, I want to know more about the author before spreading this around. Especially in light of Bush's propaganda and lies.

So, who is Jay Shaft?

[Karenina]

12. A TRUTHteller?

Many "independent sources" corroborate that Halliburton is using American soldiers for cover (while feeding them foul food and fucking up support services) as they rape Iraq and pillage the U.S. Treasury. And if you think for a moment those kids getting their butts shot at and limbs blown off haven't checked it then you seriously "misunderestimate" them. Read Stars and Stripes lately?

What me worry? :shrug:

[leanings]

16. Pretty typical DU, tho.

Anyone who writes pieces that seems to cast doubt on the party line is obviously lying. Anyone who supports it is sainted, regardless of credentials or lack thereof.

Just the very tone of these articles make them suspicious. Can anyone find an actual interview of a live person where the discourse takes a similar pattern? Where the interviewer so completely gets the exact quotes and feelings expressed that he was looking for? All the guys interviewed seemed to have lost dozens of friends KIA. Pretty odd in a war where about 1 in 300 have died so far. These articles don't even pass the most basic smell tests, but since they seem to support the DU CW, they're lapped right up.

[CityZen-X]

13. Corporate Criminal's

It only proves that the real enemy are these American Corporate Criminal's and their Butt-Puppets who have given them their contracts! They are the true enemies of the American people's and our way of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness..

[loudnclear]

14. Keeping it kicked!!

for the night crew.

[nomatrix]

15. Bechtel

Bechtel Statement to the Senate Democratic Policy Committee

http://www.bechtel.com/iraqdemocraticpolicycommitteeresponse.htm

"Many have confused the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) contract competitively awarded to Bechtel
with the noncompetitive award to Halliburton/KBR by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
These are two completely different contracts awarded by different agencies according to different procedures. Each deserves to be evaluated on its own merits."

-snip-

"Bechtel has worked in the Middle East for 60 years."

-snip-

"Bechtel was one of a number of competitive bidders invited by USAID to bid on the reconstruction work"

-snip-

"Bechtel is one of the world’s largest and most experienced engineering and construction companies. Since 1898, Bechtel has completed 20,000 projects in 140 nations on all seven continents, often in exceptionally difficult circumstances."

-snip-
"As of October 24, 2003, Bechtel had already awarded 110 of 149 subcontracts to Iraqi firms, and the overall proportion of contracts awarded to Iraqis will continue to rise through the life of the contract. Before the work is completed, more than 40,000 Iraqis will have been employed by Bechtel and its subcontractors in the extraordinary effort to reconstruct their nation. Overall, we will subcontract 90 percent of the workhours performed on this project, with 70 percent going to Iraqi firms."

-snip-

"Bechtel has approximately 600 expatriate (non-Iraqi foreign) and approximately 60 U.S. citizens supervising work in Iraq. It is training Iraqis in engineering and management skills so they can run the infrastructure themselves."

[nomatrix]

17. Bechtel hires vets

In the current election cycle (2003-2004), Bechtel PAC has thus far contributed 52 percent to Republicans and 48 percent to Democrats.

Bechtel's corporate headquarters are located in San Francisco, California, USA. (Consider how many companies have left the US)

Bechtel does the work that most people don't want to touch. Three Mile Island, The hazardous cleanup of Chemical demilitarization WMD facilities across the U.S. and former Soviet Union, decommissioning nuclear power plants including Chernobyl, Kuwait oil fire infernos.

Employees were attacked. I don't think the soldiers were saying they thought they shouldn't have protection. I think they were expressing the lack of new equipment from the military.
Work done in the day in Iraq was often sabotaged in the night.

They have also made some engineering marvels. They have been the number one engineering firm worldwide for years.

Privately owned, no stock option.

Bechtel hires unions.


Bechtel Group Inc., DuPont and Johnson & Johnson - were chosen as America's Safest Companies by Occupational Hazards this year.
http://www.occupationalhazards.com/full_story.php?WID=10540

I have seen Bechtel bashed here before, and everyone is entitled to their opinion. But with so many companies that:

robbed people of their stock/pensions

moved overseas

hired cheap labor

unsafe work conditions

taking away medical benefits

left out vets

This is a born in the USA company that has earned the respect it deserves. They pay well and treat their employees well. I wish everyone could work for a company like this.