60-Minutes Iowa Guard unit.. Guarding KBR trucks

[SoCalDem]

Anybody else watch it?

What a total waste of a mission..

Guardsmen guarding convoys sent out by a company who's being paid BILLIONS of dollars to supply those same soldiers, who , if they were not there, would not NEED supplies.

The episode described the trucks as "being in poor condition"..and the need to stop and fix them or to stop and destroy the "dead trucks", puts these guys in extra danger.

Iowa is "heartland" country and more than a few of those wives were IRATE and VOCAL to the general who showed up to tell them that their tour would be "surged"..and they would have to stay 3 extra months.. and those wives are not as hyper-patriotic as they were in the beginning.

The soldiers interviewed said they would GET OUT of the Guard.. asap.. So much for supporting the war..

In small farming towns like theirs, the Guard is a viable way to supplement the family income..and do some service to the community when tornados & floods happen...but I think many of these people are rethinking their "extra money" and occasional trips to the commissary & dispensary..

A few soldiers were shown their first interviews 2 years ago, and one said he's "done a 180" on what he thought..

Even the commander of the forces was not so sure the mission was more than "getting things under control"..

They have been there 652 days, and things are "about where they were when they started"..


The town's postmaster was killed , as was a 20 year old guardsman... and they all just want OUT..


from CBS website:

(CBS)


(CBS)
Sunday, May 27, 2007
60 Minutes devotes its entire Memorial Day weekend broadcast to the 1st Battalion of the 133rd Infantry of the Iowa National Guard serving in Iraq. In a rare journalistic effort, Scott Pelley and 60 Minutes cameras follow the battalion and the families for nearly two years, exploring the American experience of war, in Iraq and at home. Shawn Efran is the producer.

[Kagemusha]

1. I will say it again just like the last time this came up..

These KBR trucks are supplying **US TROOPS**. Therefore US troops are defending **US SUPPLIES**. If KBR drivers weren't driving them, it'd mean soldiers would have to do it instead, which likely isn't possible without a draft. Go ahead and blame the war. I support you in that. But US troops defending US military supplies from attack is not some kind of waste or outrage in and of itself.

[sanskritwarrior]

2. Seconded kagemusha........and they have been mobilized 652 days

not in Iraq 652 days........That is not possible......

[SoCalDem]

3. Except for the fact that KBR is being paid BILLIONS of dollars

and often delivers sub-standard supplies..and I think they should sub-contract their "security" out to Blackwater,DynCorp etc..They keep saying that our soldiers are a lean-mean machine so they can be "war-fighters"..hence the "need" for outside contractors..

[Kagemusha]

8. See this is what I don't understand - protecting the 'tail' is part of war.

Even if KBR wasn't there to make money, supplying the US military would still not be an easy task. There would be many problems even if it wasn't outsourced. But at any rate, these are *MILITARY* supplies. I don't see what's illogical about defending them with US troops just because the drivers and trucks hauling the taxpayer-paid supplies are outsourced.

Totally besides that, I don't think that moves towards a full, comprehensive corporate mercenary army will do anyone any favors here. Not that it's going to happen anyway.. and KBR *IS* there to make money and its motives are not pure as snow, assuredly.

[Jim__]

4. If those convoys are delivering supplies.

I saw a documentary where they talked to some of the KBR drivers, maybe it was The Selling of Iraq. In that documentary, the drivers said that the company is paid by the convoy. More convoys, more money for KBR. According to the drivers, not all those convoys actually deliver supplies. Some of them are just dummies to make money.

[annm4peace]

14. This was testimony at a hearing on Private Contractors

I saw this on CSPAN. It was testimony give by ex KBR employees who survived an ambushed that killed many of their fellow workers. A clip from the Senate hearings was on the documentary "IRAQ FOR SALE". which I recommend everyone watch or even more, purchase and share with others to watch.

[peacebaby3]

15. Well...the difference is that these soldiers are making about a tenth of

what these KBR drivers are making yet they are guarding them. It's been going on since back in 2003 because my husband's unit had to do this some and you want to talk about some pissed off people!

The private contractors need to go away and give the troops a hefty raise and let them take care of themselves! Of course, now that everything is so fucked up, it's going to be hard to really increase the size of the military until we have new leadership and no longer have an endless war.

[illinoisprogressive]

5. I saw that as well. Amazing to see these guys change from pro war to ?? it

[Mountainman]

6. During the Tet offensive in Vietnam the Vietnamese drivers for Philco Ford refused to drive the

trucks from Saigon to Long Bihn a distance of about 50 miles. The trucks were flat beds with a conex on them, driven in convoy and at least one was hit with rpg's during each trip.

We were forced to drive the convoys since the Vietnamese wouldn't. We had to make two trips a day to their one. We had a driver and a shot gun rider on each truck. MP's in jeeps with 50 cal. machine guns were with us but we still got hit.

Driving and guarding civilian convoys is nothing new.

[Kagemusha]

9. I'm sure the KBR drivers are being paid more than those Vietnamese were offered.

But then again the US had a draft to fill those proverbial and literal seats.

[dflprincess]

11. The KB&R drivers are being paid more than the troops protecting them

n/t

[Jim__]

7. The most friustrating thing to me about that show was ...

... a number of the people who were interviewed said that "they" attacked us on 9/11. People still connect Iraq with 9/11. People really need to learn the truth that bush used 9/11 as an excuse to carry out already made plans. People need to know this and then get angry; get very angry.

[SoCalDem]

10. Transference is a useful method of convincing soldier to fight

"They" , in this case is just a term that describes the "other".. It could be bin Laden, Al Zawahiri, Al Qaeda, Iraqis, Taliban or the 15 yr old kid of an unknown Iraqi family whose only crime, is that he does not understand English..

Military training is heavy on the guilt-by-association thing, and anyone can be the "enemy".. Vague references and demonization/dehumanization of the "other" makes it easier to kill at will..

[pstans]

17. I noticed that too

Especially the part with the interview of the father and son in Iraq. The father used the argument that "they" attacked us, which is completely false.

[Bluerthanblue]

22. that really troubled me too- what is more, i have to

confess that the 'father' seemed..... (how to say this).... when they showed this entire family to begin with the mom was asked how she felt about having not only a husband but a son heading over there and her response was ...she got a glazed kind of expression and said something about "God"- and how it all was ...'so good'- ??...

Then, they showed how tough it had been on her, and questioned the Father, and his response reminded me so much of my own childhood... he exhaled and said that she was going to struggle with depression any time he wasn't home with her- like this wasn't something new, or unique to the family, and that maybe being over there was somewhat ... freeing... i realize i'm reading an awful lot into this, probably completely unfairly... but i found his mantra about Iraq being responsible for 9/11- and his "even if people don't like it, we are staying here till we have made the world safe" (paraphrase) really unnerving, and odd.

I didn't see the same kind of blind-unchanging mindset in any of the others, even those who couldn't bring themselves to say much about the mission there.

It was odd, sad, and disturbing- His son on the other hand, spoke like someone who had discovered an ugly truth, and felt angry, frustrated and betrayed.

[progressoid]

20. Rationalization.

I think a lot of people will never accept that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. They need a reason for supporting this mess. They need something to hold on to give meaning to the lives that have been lost - sometimes the lives of loved ones.

It's easier to swallow the lie than swallow their pride and accept the enormity of what they have done.

Truth: another casualty of war.

[madrchsod]

12. what did the "party" do for them? NOTHING!

the politics of blood as practiced by the "partys" in this country

[lpbk2713]

13. It took em a while to figure out they've been had just like the rest of us.

Only our lives weren't endangered like theirs were. I feel badly for them. BushCo used them big time.

[pstans]

16. One of the soldiers that died is from my town

When my wife was in high school she worked for his wife at a coffee shop. His children were a couple years behind me in school. It is so sad. Then I saw the part about their duty being extended because of the troop surge. Damn is about all you can say.

Support the troops. End the War.

:patriot:

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Here is a connection nobody wants to make

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x984822

[Kagemusha]

21. So you're saying the food shortage is solely because of KBR?

You might be right, but I see zero evidence supporting that assertion. That's why I didn't want to make the connection.

[progressoid]

19. full video is online now.

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2846970&channel=60Minutes