63 KBR Truck drivers have died so far in Iraq. Kill'em, Bag'em, Replace'em

[Up2Late]

...is what the truckers call KBR.

This is according to the first of a 2 part report on NPR's "All Things Considered" today.

I have mixed feelings about Iraq War Contractors, but most of these KBR guys were just down on their luck Truck Drivers. Very Good, but rather sad report at this link:

The Trucker's War: On the Road in Iraq

Listen to this story... by John Burnett

All Things Considered, May 25, 2006 · Private contractors are America's shadow army in Iraq; essential, but often forgotten. Among the most vulnerable: Civilian truck drivers who navigate the most dangerous roads in the world, delivering everything from meals to mail to bullets to portable toilets.

The truckers face ambushes unarmed. At least 63 of them have died. Twenty-four were Americans, the rest were third-country nationals. Some say their employer, KBR, should have done more to protect them.

Another Day on the Job

Imagine yourself in the cab of a truck bouncing along a highway in Iraq. Palm trees and dun-colored houses whiz past. Children run out to beg. Men in white dishdashas and red headscarves with hostile faces watch you pass.

You swerve to miss a donkey carcass; it could be booby-trapped. Suddenly, a familiar sound: the pop, pop, pop of machine-gun fire. You hope the soldiers in the Humvees escorting your convoy shoot back.

(more and audio at link)

<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5431088>

[saigon68]

1. It's too bad

But greed drove then to it

I hope the cash made, was worth the long "Dirt Nap" they are taking.

[Dunvegan]

2. What the heck is the going rate for a KBR contractor, anyway?

I've had some okay contracts that I felt were not worth it just working exhausting hours trotting around stateside doing geekwerk...but what kind of hazard pay are they offering for this charlie foxtrot kind of gig that would entice ANY civilian to fling themselves at this brand of lunacy?

[RUMPLEMINTZ]

8. From what I've heard

it's $100,000 a year tax free. Not worth dying for!

[Dunvegan]

12. Thank you. That's most interesting.

And yes...not reasonable hazard pay considering the lifetime earnings of a good long-haul trucker.

[PatGund]

16. Not all of it tax free

IRS regs on US expat workers currently set a limit of $80,000 that's tax-free, (a limit that's going to go down soon, since expats just got hit with the biggest tax increase in 30 years). Housing, food, and transportation allowances are taxed as well.

How much of that $100k the trucker is making is actual salary, and how much is housing, food, etc.?? They may not be making that much.

That being said, it's a job they shouldn't be doing anyway.

[FreeStateDemocrat]

3. Steve Earle sings about in "Home to Houston" on his "The Revolution

Starts Today" CD.

When I pulled out of Basra they all wished me luck
Just like they always did before
With a bulletproof screen on the hood of my truck
And a Bradley on my back door
And I wound her up and shifted her down
And I offered this prayer to my lord
I said “God get me back home to Houston alive
and I won’t drive a truck anymore”

Early in the mornin’ and I’m rollin’ fast
Haulin’ nine thousand gallons of high test gas
Sergeant on the radio hollerin’ at me
Look out up ahead here come a R.P.G.
If I ever get home to Houston alive
Then I won’t drive a truck anymore

I’ve driven the big rigs for all of my life
And my radio handle’s “Train”
Down steep mountain roads on the darkest of nights
I had ice water in my veins
And I come over here ‘cause I just didn’t care
Now I’m older and wiser by far
If I ever get home to Houston alive
Then I won’t drive a truck anymore

Great God A’mighty what was wrong with me
I know the money’s good but buddy can’t you see
You can’t take it with you and that ain’t no lie
I don’t wanna let ‘em get me I’m too young to die
If I ever get home to Houston alive
Then I won’t drive a truck anymore

[Bridget Burke]

7. You'll note that Steve doesn't look down his nose at "mercenaries"

He wrote yet another song indicating how he can get inside someone's head. Someone human.

Of course, he's a bit short to "look down" at anyone!

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

4. To the Bushbots and Halliburton, human lives in general

whether US or Iraqi, are expendable. As long as their profits are up for the next quarter, they can rationalize and say that the truckers "died for a good cause" or some crap like that. Why else would they fail to make a half-decent effort to armor the trucks? Only recently have they finally begun making at least half-hearted attempts to up-armor the big rigs-- scores of dead truckers later, of course.

[KoKo]

17. Kick............

[bread_and_roses]

18. Hey, it's CAPITALISM at it's finest. What's KBR's return these days?

Maybe we should get them in our "portfolios?" So in thirty years we can live in comfort while most of the globe scrabbles in dead slag-heaps for sustenance. :sarcasm:

[NI4NI]

5. A CBS interview with my close friend's widow

In April of 2004 Dan Rather did a CBS News report about private citizens workingin Iraq which included a Bob McNamara interview with my close friend Arthur Linderman Sr's. widowed wife Linda, and their son, "Artie Jr." "Artie Sr." was a truck driver who died here at home after being taken off life support machinery due to the gunshot wounds he suffered in Iraq. My friend also had 2 daughters. "Artie survived 2 tours of combat duty (some of it hand to hand) with the Marines in Viet-Nam during the late 60's. The last time I talked with "Artie" I remember him telling me....."It (Iraq)can't be as bad as 'Nam was. "Artie" was someone who only wanted to "live and let live", to earn a living, and to support his family. He was a Democrat and someone who would give you his last dollar if you needed it. I miss him.

The url page link for the interveiw has been moved but the article can be easily found by Googleing......ARTHUR LINDERMAN DIED IN IRAQ. Strangely, for some reason it's on a website about media bias towards liberals.

[KharmaTrain]

6. Personal Story...A Mother's Lament

I have an acquaintance in Alabama...her son is about to ship out to Iraq and appears to be a new KBR hire. She was a loyal Repugnican and now is seeing the light (the WMD lie and now her son getting dragged into this mess did it)...and now sees everything this regime says as lies. When she mentioned that her son was heading over to "drive a truck and make a lot of money" someone asked her if he had signed on as a contractor...she didn't know. He's 26 and had not been in the military before...but was told he could make upwards of $150k a year...plus "future considerations". She had heard of Haliburton, but not KBR and didn't realize that there was a lot of "contracting" going on. She still didn't understand that it appeared her son was not going into the military like he claimed, but was gonna be a mercenary. I sure didn't have the heart to tell her that, and neither did others in on the conversation. One did send her a link to Gold Star Mothers...told her that these people might be of help when her son ships out. She's both confused and scared...one hell of a price to pay for being a "good Repugnican".

[BlueManDude]

9. they probably make more dough than the soldiers do

hey it's the free market. they know it's dangerous.

[Up2Late]

10. Part 2: Civilian Drivers Feel Neglected After Working in Iraq (NPR)

Civilian Drivers Feel Neglected After Working in Iraq

Listen to this story...(at link}
by John Burnett

Morning Edition, May 26, 2006 · Unarmed and untrained for combat, civilian truck drivers who haul freight between military bases in Iraq find themselves on the war's frontlines. At least 63 -- including 24 Americans -- have died so far, mostly from shootings and roadside bombs. The constant exposure to violence puts the contractors at risk for post-traumatic stress disorder. And some complain they're forgotten once they return home.

Last August, driver David Meredith found what little was left of the body of Larry Stilwell, a fellow trucker who died when his flatbed truck hit a homemade landmine in central Iraq. The trauma of that event, plus the death of a second driver he knew in a roadside bombing, led Meredith to quit as a driver for KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton.

Today, Meredith is back home in Leavenworth, Kan., driving a truck again. But he says he hasn't been the same since the August incident. Meredith complains of frequent flashbacks, angry outbursts, and an exaggerated startle response.

A local doctor concluded that Meredith is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Despite that diagnosis, KBR's insurance company, AIG WorldSource, denied Meredith's claim, saying there's no medical evidence.

(more and Audio at link)

<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5433075>

[coalition_unwilling]

11. On National Pentagon Radio (NPR) this a.m. they said

that 500+ "contractors" (aka "mercenaries") have been killed in Iraq so far and over 5,000+ wounded

[KoKo]

13. Thanks so much for this post. I heard the NPR segment on this and it

was really powerful. All those recruited by KBR (discussed in this report) and who knows how many "truck drivers" for "Blackwater" (here in my home state) were suckered into this "Foreign Legion Macho Thing" for $100,000 a year (according to PBS) to drive un-armoured truckes to be a Free Range Non-Military Combatint.

It was a great report. I was going to post it but didn't have time to do the links back to NPR for it.

There are "Soldiers of Fortune" always in every society...but that Bush/Rumsfeld thing that they should be "exploited" maybe goes against some Dems views of "Empire."

I really loved the interviews with the "Tough Guy Texans" who say it ALL with the Bush crap and they didn't even want to give their REAL NAMES for this report.

The "Unsung" folks who "put their lives on the line for personal reasons" is something we need to know. We Dems cut "cut 'em off...or embrace them."

I say...they saw what it's all about...let's spread this FAR AND WIDE!

[Up2Late]

14. I feel the same way, one thing people seem to be missing here is...

...Yes, these guys did let the thought of "Big Bucks" go to their heads, but none of these guys would have found themselves in this situation if Donald Rumsfeld had sent enough troops to do these jobs, and if the Bush Cabal hadn't started this stupid War in the first place.

I mean, O.K., if you want to contract out KP duty or Latrine duty, I don't think any of our troops would mind that, but even though using American Troops as truck drivers seems, on the surface, to be a waste of a trained fighter, but when you are talking a situation like we have in Iraq, those truck drivers should be troops too. Troops who can fight back if attacked.

I doubt too many of these guys ever got the full $100,000.00 for working a full year either.

[KoKo]

15. Agree.. what I like about this NPR report is that it didn't trash these

guys but pointed out the realities of their situation. Like you I wonder how many really got the $100,00 and even though I protested to STOP the INVASION...I still can understand how folks "down on luck, without jobs or just looking for adventure and needing the money would see this as a great opportunity.

I'll bet Rummy and the NeoCons kind of felt this was a good way to "Employ" some "underemployed folks" too. THE NeoCon's view is that people are "expendable" ...Cannon Fodder (in another time) whereas Democrats believe every life is precious and we should think before we get ourselves into situations where "cannon fodder" or PAYOLA should govern how we fight wars.

But, that might be the "old view of Dems" ...and it's all changed.

Rummy's view of Modernizing the Military with Paid targets. Who is ever gonna notice when they die...only their families and they don't have to abide by our Constitution or the Geneva Convention. Mercenary Army with no control....:-( But, I still can feel bad for these guys who signed up. Many were desperate...and Rummy/Cheney/Bush and the DC Beltway Crowd don't give "shit" about the people like this ....they are living "cushy lives" and people like that are just "waste" to them. :-(

[Scoody Boo]

19. I worked with a security contractor in Iraq...

made enough to start my business. My company escorted many of those convoys from Baghdad Airport to their destinations scattered all around Iraq. We had our own bomb techs to disarm the IEDs we found along the way. Those guys were making BIG bucks. We did not always find them and several blew up trucks in convoys we were escorting. It is a pretty harrowing way to make a living. I wouldn't go again. Not for money. I would go to Iraq again with my old Army unit though.

[legin]

20. truckers twice as likely to die than soldiers ???

from the article, KBR have 700 trucks working each day.

Truckers have to rest, so a guess would be that there are about 1,500 truckers in Iraq.

63 truckers in 3 years equals 21 per year.

So probability of being killed is about 1 in 100 (worse even) for a 1 years rotation.

For soldiers the figure is about 1 in 200 for a years rotation.

(rough maths alert)