Time Magazine has a piece this week looking at a new project over at
IAVA (Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, formerly Operation Truth) called
Follow the Money. The project is led by Dina Rasor who, according to the Time piece, helped uncover the Pentagon procurement scandals of the 1980s. What makes this project really interesting to me is the combination of research into corruption with personal stories of soldiers left without the supplies and services they need. Here's how Dana describes
Follow the Money:
We are spending about five billion dollars a month in Iraq. In a over two years, we have spent the equivalent to half of the 12-year Vietnam War or half of World War I with many fewer men under arms. Over a billion a week is all Rumsfeld asks. And the Congress and American public have willingly voted for this money because, as one general once told me," we need the best for our boys."
But there is a mismatch here. While the DOD is pouring buckets of water through the procurement sponge, only a few drops are reaching some of the troops. Troops will tell you that in the Green Zone or in the bigger camps "around the flagpole," where the brass hangs out, there are fancy facilities run by KBR and other contractors but that if you are deployed outside these zones, you will be hurting for vehicle parts, body armor, food and even drinking water. Even around the flagpole, some troops have told us that they are getting what they don't need but not getting what they do need to fight and win.
I really don't understand why this hasn't been made into a much bigger political issue by Democrats. Not only has the Bush Administration led/lied us into a war of choice in the Middle East, but they have allowed their friends to pillage the American tax payer while our men and women in uniform are left without many of the basic tools they need to fight effectively. If that's not a message that can help unseat these corrupt bastards, then I don't think any message can.
Crossposted at Blue Force | Progressive National Security, National Security Progressives