http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,510715,00.html

Huh????

These soldiers are over there dodging bullets and IED's and they have to worry about being electrocuted in the shower???

Unfortunately the article doesn't really give enough detail, but if it turns out the contractor that installed this stuff did it improperly, then they should be brought up on either murder or manslaughter charges.

Just remember that Darth Cheney saw to it that Halliburton and their KBR offshoot got millions of dollars to do the job, surely enough to see that it was safe.

This problem is a fine example of how Bush mismanaged the war in Iraq. Goes hand in hand with the lack of armor the ground troops had.

Unfortunately, this is an old story.

July 18, 2008
Electrical Risks at Iraq Bases Are Worse Than Said
By JAMES RISEN
WASHINGTON — Shoddy electrical work by private contractors on United States military bases in Iraq is widespread and dangerous, causing more deaths and injuries from fires and shocks than the Pentagon has acknowledged, according to internal Army documents.

During just one six-month period — August 2006 through January 2007 — at least 283 electrical fires destroyed or damaged American military facilities in Iraq, including the military’s largest dining hall in the country, documents obtained by The New York Times show. Two soldiers died in an electrical fire at their base near Tikrit in 2006, the records note, while another was injured while jumping from a burning guard tower in May 2007.

And while the Pentagon has previously reported that 13 Americans have been electrocuted in Iraq, many more have been injured, some seriously, by shocks, according to the documents. A log compiled earlier this year at one building complex in Baghdad disclosed that soldiers complained of receiving electrical shocks in their living quarters on an almost daily basis. ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/world/middleeast/18contractors.html

Does anybody think it's a good idea to make war a profitable venture?

"Does anybody think it's a good idea to make war a profitable venture?"

Halliburton.

"Does anybody think it's a good idea to make war a profitable venture?"

Apparently, freemarket conservatives do.

Dick Cheney thinks it's okay.

The DICKster is all about profits from war. Just ask him about all the Haliburton stocks he has and all the money he made off Iraq.......

"Apparently, freemarket conservatives do."

How "freemarket" are no-bid guaranteed government contracts? Issued by those supposed "free-market" conservatives?

I think we ought to give Cheney a couple of electrified showers and see what he (and his heart) thinks about that!

How "freemarket" are no-bid guaranteed government contracts?

Very. These people are against government intervention that would disallow such no-bid contracts.

Skybill wrote:

These soldiers are over there dodging bullets and IED's and they have to worry about being electrocuted in the shower???

You honestly sound surprised. If you would bother to read the press you brand as liberal, this is one of many stories going around about how our soldiers are not being properly taken care of. Obama is right, no bid contracts need to be outlawed.

And some people need to go to jail over this stuff.

I mean hard, federal PMITA time, kind of jail.

Skybill -- These soldiers are over there dodging bullets and IED's and they have to worry about being electrocuted in the shower?

Yes. The U.S. Army Safety Center issued a bulletin called "The Unexpected Killer" in October of 2004. With so many neighbors serving overseas, our regional media was hollering about it a year ago. Soon, even the American Conservative was reporting the allegations. Congressional investigations last summer were utterly damning, but nothing slowed down the contracts. At those hearings, a brave local whistleblower stepped forth to testify. Debbie Crawford recently appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show to share her story with a national audience. Now, there is evidence that thousands of sites are improperly wired. Only in recent weeks did we have a White House responding to this crisis with any sort of urgency.

Listenerpete -- Unfortunately, this is an old story.

Yes, you nailed it. It is a very old and very familiar story in the history of military contracting. The sweetheart deals can be traced back through Clinton and Reagan to the gravy train of World War II. Most of all, KBR can thank their lucky stars for decades of corrupt Texas connections on both sides of the aisle.

"The story of Halliburton's ties to the White House dates back to the 1940s, when a Texas firm called Brown & Root constructed a massive dam project near Austin. The company's founders, Herman and George Brown, won the contract to build Mansfield Dam thanks to the efforts of Lyndon Johnson, who was then a Texas congressman.

After Johnson took over the Oval Office, Brown & Root won contracts for huge construction projects for the federal government. By the mid-1960s, newspaper columnists and the Republican minority in Congress began to suggest that the company's good luck was tied to its sizable contributions to Johnson's political campaign.

More questions were raised when a consortium of which Brown & Root was a part won a $380 million contract to build airports, bases, hospitals and other facilities for the U.S. Navy in South Vietnam. By 1967, the General Accounting Office had faulted the "Vietnam builders" -- as they were known -- for massive accounting lapses and allowing thefts of materials.

Brown & Root also became a target for anti-war protesters: they called the firm the embodiment of the "military-industrial complex" and denounced it for building detention cells to hold Viet Cong prisoners in South Vietnam.

Today, Brown & Root is called Kellogg, Brown & Root -- a Halliburton subsidiary better known as KBR."

NPR

Missing KSKD -- And some people need to go to jail over this stuff. I mean hard, federal PMITA time, kind of jail.

I agree! Each one of our brave soldiers is prepared to lay down their lives, but that does not make them expendable. Setting aside our personal feelings about the war, I think we all would like to see these contractors tried for murder. If it comes to a trial, it looks like "negligent homicide" is a distinct possibility.

What's PMITA mean?

I hope it doesn't mean: Poke 'eM In The A$$

Close!!

Pump me in the ass, to be precise!

Great guess though!