Building A Progressive Future

This entire week, I've been blogging my interview with Rachel, a formerly deployed soldier in Iraq, who has been brave enough to share her experiences with contractor abuse and the harm it is causing our troops. Her testimony has placed a spotlight on the need for policies that truly support the troops in practice, not just in rhetoric. For as much as the current administration uses empty talking points such as “protect of our national security” and “support the troops” to justify its policies, when it comes down to it, our leaders clearly view the well-being of the soldiers on the front lines as an afterthought to the profits they and their cronies have reaped from the war. In this final entry, Rachel weighs in on the need for accountability:

What is your reaction to the news that the administration left a loophole in contractor accountability legislation that gave immunity to overseas contractors like KBR for any misdoing?
Honestly, it makes no sense. To give immunity to these contractors clearly gives no motivation for them to live up to their contracts. In this case, KBR was supposed to be testing for chlorine three times a day, however after looking at the reports and oversight hearings, it seems that the water had been contaminated for as long as KBR had been present on Camp Ramadi. Many studies and common sense observations make it clear that contractor accountability should not be minimized. For example, a study released by Blackwell Synergy’s Journal of Travel Medicine discussed the self-reported description of diarrhea among military populations in Operations Iraqi/Enduring Freedom. The background of the study reports that infectious diarrhea is among the most common medical problems associated with military deployments and has been reported as a frequent problem for troops. Overall diarrhea was reported from 2003 to 2004 by 76.8% of military personnel in Iraq. It was “frequently severe” for 20.8% or associated with fever (25.8%), vomiting (18%), persistent symptoms (9.8%) or chronic symptoms (3.3%). Over 80% reported seeking care, usually at the lowest echelon of care (field medic). The study concluded that the issues are more common than in past conflicts in the region. Common sense tells me it’s probable that the increased amount have been due to contaminated water and that less accountability for contractors giving troops basic necessities could prove detrimental to force protection.

I knew that I would face risks while I was in Iraq. It’s a part of the job description. But that risk should never have involved behavior by contractors cutting corners with such carelessness. In most wars, dysentery kills more soldiers than combat. This in itself seems like a pretty good reason to hold the contractors accountable. The contract and regulations to provide clean water and to test it regularly to avoid contamination were clearly stated. This wasn’t just one time on one camp, it was widespread and exposed thousands of troops and civilians to a potentially deadly threat.

After hearing Rachel's testimony, I can't help but wonder why the administration doesn't see the correlation between the lack of accountability in Iraq, and the lack of progress in Iraq. Rachel says herself that the neglect practiced by the contractors in providing basic necessities undermines the efforts to secure progress.

It's clear that the need for change is imminent. Policies such as these do not reflect the true American values of fairness, community and security. It's time we started truly supporting our troops by calling for measures of accountability for the contractors who are supposed to be taking care of them.

I'm sure you are as grateful as I am to Rachel for being the voice that has been silenced by the Pentagon and by the media. Rachel's story stands as an unequivocal call for consequences for those who have taken advantage of the soldiers on the front lines of the war. Please join Progressive Future's campaign to hold private contractors accountable by signing our Call for Consequences petition, and stay tuned for further ways to stay informed and active on this serious issue.

For the past three days, this five-part diary series has shared the experiences of Rachel, an Iraq War Veteran, and her encounters with the private military contractor, KBR. In a series of interviews, she revealed stories of unfair disparities in pay and treatment between contractors and military personnel, having to shower in what was essentially wastewater because of KBR's negligence, and her reactions to the KBR water scandal investigations upon her return to the United States.

Today's installment tells a different story, but one that is equally appalling and pertinent to the issue of how the Pentagon continues to subject the troops to mistreatment and negligence. Josh, a soldier who was also stationed at Camp Ramadi, describes his experiences with struggling to find medical help for a traumatic brain injury (TBI), induced by a roadside bomb in Iraq, and his subsequent case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder:

What caused your TBI?
I was serving as the gunner in the turret of a humvee when we were hit on the front driver's side by a roadside bomb which was set off by the radio. I was knocked unconscious for a couple minutes by the blast and had a concussion.

Can you describe the symptoms caused by your TBI?
With my TBI I have speech problems, balance and coordination problems, memory and concentration problems and post-traumatic stress disorder.

How were you treated?
I wasn't. I was "examined" by a battalion medic who was a staff sergeant. Apparently I had regained my hearing back and had no other problems. The notes said I should return if I had ringing in the ears, hearing problems, or unexplained chest pains or if my hearing worsened. Then I started back doing missions again. My commander filled out an LOD [a Line of Duty Investigation].

When we came home six months later, on my post deployment checklist, I noted that I had headaches, chest pain, difficulty breathing, ringing in the ears and difficulty remembering things. On the same checklist, I answered yes to 3 of 4 have-you-ever "PTSD Screening Questions." I received no follow up referrals and didn't know anything about PTSD or the possibility that I could even have it. So then we just went home. That was it, no physical, just [a week of] paperwork and drinking [in an intake facility], then home.

Would you characterize VA medical care as adequate?
It's inadequate because it takes so long to get in and get anything done. It's also inadequate because hundreds of thousands of soldiers who need it aren't even getting taken care of by the VA, and thousands more are attempting to commit suicide under their care. Not only that, but when I went there as "a danger to myself and other people," they said it was in the past and that it didn't mean that I was still. They didn't want me to be there and they didn't know what to do with me. It's no wonder they wanted to "Shhh..." the numbers of veterans attempting to commit suicide under their care.

Do you feel that there would be more volunteer recruits for the military if the government offered better treatment for the troops?
Definitely, I think a lot more people would volunteer. It just seems like it isn’t worth it right now and it only sounds like it’s going to get worse before it gets better. A big part of the recruiting is all about these benefits and, in my experience, they’re nearly impossible to get.

Do you feel that the effect of having more people sign up for service would diminish the need for the Pentagon to outsource all these services to private contractors?
It could definitely do that, because those hundreds of thousands of civilians serving overseas would be likely to do it for the army if it offered the same pay, benefits and leave. I got 15 days rest and recuperation leave from Iraq, while the people serving in Kuwait got 30 days and the civilians I talked to got to leave, all expenses paid, for two weeks every three months to go wherever they wanted to fly. In addition to the higher wages, the time away from home wouldn’t seem as bad if the tours were shorter or leave was more [frequent] or longer. It would also be smart to utilize the job skills the reserves and national guard bring to the army from the civilian side for some of the skill sets that they’re outsourcing. It would make sense to find a happy medium and pay civilians less and the military more, and give some of the military benefits as pay to avoid the red tape.

 

The “Shh...” that Josh talks about in his testimony refers to the subject line of an email sent by a VA official regarding the number of suicide attempts by veterans of the Global War on Terror. As instances of veterans' tragedies started to crop up (the New York Times published a series of articles chronicling these cases), so has the Department of Veterans' Affair's attempts to muffle and downplay these tragedies.

How much longer can the United States afford to sweep the needs of these soldiers under the rug? What does all this say about how much our leaders value the sacrifices these young men and women have made for our country? We need to send a message to the Pentagon that the American public will not stand for the unfair treatment of our troops, and that we will not turn our backs on these injustices. Tomorrow, Rachel will share her thoughts on what it would mean for all of us if the contractors were granted immunity for the injustices they've committed, and will lead a call for consequences.

Yesterday, in Part II of this five-part series, I shared my friend Rachel's experiences in Iraq with having to shower in dirty, contaminated water provided to the troops by private contractor and former Halliburton subsidiary, KBR. This story followed Rachel's recollection of the grossly higher paychecks the contractors were receiving for the same work as the military personnel, a sick twist of irony if you consider how poorly the contractors were doing the jobs they are paid six-figure incomes to perform.

While the firsthand testimony of her experiences shocked and angered me, the findings of the investigations that followed truly made me disgusted:

To your knowledge, was KBR ever notified of the suspicions with the water?
I never [considered] that the water was unmonitored, however since coming home I have learned more about what went wrong. On May 13, 2005 (about a month after we moved to the camp) KBR’s Theatre Water Quality Manager authored a report regarding the water in Camp Ramadi. The then-water purification manager, Ben Carter, reportedly followed up on a complaint that there was larvae in one of the toilets. After discovering that it was true, he immediately tested for chlorine in water points, and found that none was present. He testified in January 2006 for a Senate Democratic Policy Committee Hearing that after telling site management to inform the military to chlorinate their water, he was told by the KBR site manager that the military was none of his concern. “I was ordered to concern myself only with the health and safety of KBR personnel.”

At the time of the report, this oversight was still continuing. In his testimony, Ben Carter stated that he knew the issues with the water continued at least through September 2005. The report also states: “This event should be considered a NEAR MISS as the consequences of these actions could have been VERY SEVERE resulting in mass sickness or death.”

Upon reading further into the report, [I discovered that the water] was actually twice as polluted going into our showers as it would have been had we taken it directly from the river. This was because they took the concentrated wastewater from the reverse osmosis purification process and, instead of dumping it, they used it for our non-potable water. The report concludes that the military is required to acquire a discharge permit for the concentrated waste stream, which explains [the danger in using concentrated wastewater] for non potable consumption. Further intensifying this problem was the “blatant disregard” for the disinfection of the wastewater with chlorine.

The Dept. of Defense released the Inspector General Report on the water problems and found that not only was water contaminated in Camp Ramadi from October 13, 2004 to May 26, 2005 (a date which I believe to be inaccurate, as the water quality did not seem to change during my time showering in it until December 2005), water was also contaminated at [many other camps].

Carter concluded his testimony at the oversight hearing by saying, “I’m here today because I believe that supporting the troops has to be more than a slogan. Our men and women overseas deserve the best our taxpayer dollars can buy, and it saddens me to report that we’re falling short on something as simple and essential as providing them with clean, safe water.”

Where to begin? Larvae in communally-used toilets is bad enough, but it can be passed off as an isolated incident. The fact that there was absolutely no chlorinated disinfection process being used in any of the water points hows you the ethical decay behind contractor practices. This was a deliberate decision to cut corners at the expense of the health and security of our troops.

What's more disturbing is that it appears this attitude was not just some unspoken practice; the blatant disregard for the well-being of the troops was an explicitly stated policy coming from higher-ups within the corporation. So let me get this straight: KBR was hired to perform services intended to support and protect the troops, yet it is the stated policy of KBR to treat the interest of the troops as an afterthought, and even an obstacle in their ventures to capitalize on the war.

These dangers are the saddening result of corporate interests having an influence over foreign policy and being allowed to thrive unregulated and unchecked. Stories like these show the true priorities of the officials shaping the war: profit over security. Yet again, these are the folks to will defend their practices on the platform of being strong on national security. Yet, despite the lack of reporting on these atrocities in the mainstream media, Americans are starting to realize that, when push comes to shove, these leaders of ours will always choose their own financial interests over the security of our nation.

Tomorrow I will post an interview I had with Josh, another soldier stationed at Camp Ramadi, and share his story of his struggle to receive VA care for a traumatic brain injury and PTSD.

Yesterday, in Part 1 of this series, “Who's Supporting the Troops?”, I shared part of my interview with Rachel, a formerly deployed soldier in Iraq who experienced first hand the abuse and neglect of private military contractors. Although many people identified with Rachel's incredible story, Rachel requested we not print her last name or rank for purposes of privacy. Rachel's story began by exposing the egregious pay discrepancies between military and civilian contractors. Her experiences teach us that the very idea of hiring these contractors is at once channeling resources away from the troops and placing profit as a priority over the security of our troops.

This reality would be infuriating enough if there wasn't an additional piece compounding this problem: the contractors are doing a poor, and sometimes downright destructive, job. In the case of KBR's performance in fulfilling their contracted service of providing water to the troops, Rachel had much to share with me:

Describe your experience with the KBR water scandal.
I traveled to many bases during my deployment and some were worse than others, but it was nothing compared to the water awaiting me in Camp Ar Ramadi. In Camp Ar Ramadi, we often ran out of water. When our water tanks ran out, we were told we’d have to wait for KBR to come and empty out the bad water and refill our non-potable water.

Some days the water smelled like sulfur, other days it smelled like straight sewage. They told us to make sure we kept our mouths closed in the showers when we complained about the smell. I can’t count the number of days I left the showers feeling dirtier than when I went in and many others shared those feelings. I know many soldiers used the water for brushing their teeth or shaving and others even used it for coffee and hot chocolate. Showering almost seems worse than drinking because the skin is so porous.

What sorts of illnesses did you/your fellow soldiers experience?
While it’s difficult to say exactly what could have been [attributed] to the water, soldiers' most common complaint was diarrhea; other symptoms included nausea and vomiting, headaches, fever and occasional rashes or other issues with the skin, usually after showering with a cut or other wound. Because this problem affected just about all of us, it became the norm. It wasn’t common to take time off from the mission to go to sick call unless it was really bad. Sometimes though, we would get relief from symptoms while on missions at other bases – only to return back to Ramadi to get sick again.

Of the people you have kept in touch with, have any experienced long term symptoms? Have any received a diagnosis?
When I came home from my deployment, I had a physical with a civilian doctor. Full physicals were not given when we came off of active duty. My doctor said that I had a high amount of bacteria and he wasn’t sure why it was there. Two other females who lived with me also had elevated bacteria levels. I didn’t yet know that the water I showered with was contaminated. It took several months for my stomach problems to stop.

It seems that the soldiers who shaved and brushed their teeth with the water from the sinks in the shower trailers are still having symptoms. Another male soldier, who didn’t realize you could shower in the water but not brush your teeth with it continues to have bad stomach problems.

The issue many soldiers are having now is that they do not know what specifically to have the doctor test for. Without accurate information as to what exactly we were exposed to, the doctors can only do so much. Other soldiers have requested testing from the VA and received equally uncertain responses from their doctors. What is more disturbing though, is that very few, if any, of the soldiers have been informed by KBR or the military. We all learned different ways, whether it was in a news story or by word of mouth.

I remember after this scandal broke in the press, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morell at once dismissed this issue and made a joke about it at the troops expense, saying, “I mean, they make it perfectly clear that you don't want to drink the water...[the troops] should read the signs and just drink bottled water."

I don't know what I find more repulsive, the fact that Morell blindly defended the cronies of his superiors at the Pentagon, or the fact that he avoided addressing the real issue of what this water was provided for. This water wasn't given to the troops to drink. It was provided to shower in, and as Rachel points out, this makes the issue all the more serious, because soldiers' bodies were covered in it. As for Morell's comment that the troops should somehow know better, since Rachel points out that they often ran out of water, it makes sense that when the troops received batches of water allocated for hygiene purposes, many of them would use the same water to brush their teeth (and since yesterday's post revealed the abysmal pay the troops were receiving compared to the contractors, do you really think many of them would choose to spend their hard-earned money on bottled water?).

The second aspect to Morell's statement which I find equally disturbing is his blind defense of the contractors. Bear in mind that KBR is a former subsidiary of Dick Cheney's brainchild, Halliburton. This is a poorly disguised case of the administration protecting its own bedfellows and valuing cronyism over the health of American soldiers. Yet these are the folks who have the audacity to call war critics unpatriotic and accuse us of not supporting the troops. Perhaps an act of a true patriot would be to call for the protection of our troops through contractor accountability.

Tomorrow, Rachel will reveal her responses to the reports and investigations regarding the water scandal upon her return to the United States.

This is the first installment of a five-part blog series sharing the experiences of Rachel, an Iraq War veteran who was a firsthand witness to many cases of contractor abuse against the troops.

It seems that, each day, I wake up and read a new way in which private contractors are taking advantage of our troops in Iraq. New reports surface that illuminate the greed and corruption of these private companies, hired through multi-billion dollar contracts to support the health and security of American soldiers. These services are too important to be performed without oversight and accountability for the devastating results that occur. From electrocutions due to faulty wiring and the provision of contaminated water, to rape, arbitrary shootings of Iraqi civilians, and tax evasion, the stories pile up with such a magnitude of horror, it is truly conscience-stirring for even the most jaded among us.

And yet, so many of these stories remain buried in the mainstream press. It saddens me that so many of these soldiers have received disgusting and hazardous treatment while defending our country and are unable to make their voices heard. So when Rachel, a formerly deployed soldier who was stationed at Camp Ramadi, offered to tell me about her experiences with the contractors in Iraq, I wanted to share her testimony with all supporters and members of Progressive Future in an exclusive five-part blog series. Each day this week, I will post a new entry sharing another aspect of Rachel's story.

I met Rachel in a discussion forum about KBR's provision of contaminated water to the troops, and she was incredibly articulate and forthcoming regarding her experiences in Iraq. One of the first issues into which Rachel shared some revealing insight was the disparities in both employment packages and living conditions between the troops and the private contractors:

What led to your decision to serve in Iraq?
I convinced my parents to allow me to join the Army when I was 17 years old in 2002. There was no specific reason for joining, although a significant part of it was curiosity. Ultimately, this decision to join led to my involuntary transfer into a reserve unit preparing to deploy to Iraq in 2004.

I was deployed in December 2004. The first few months we were stationed near Tikrit. The rest of my time, I was stationed at Camp Ar Ramadi until we returned home in December 2005.

What sorts of private contractors did you encounter/work with in Iraq and what services did they provide?
I encountered private contractors nearly everywhere that I went in both Kuwait and Iraq. Services provided to us included: laundry, food and water; dumpsters and porta-johns were usually emptied daily, fitness and recreation centers with free internet service [were provided, as were] phones to use with phone cards. Civilians, usually from other countries, staffed the facilities and were typically managed by Americans.

The only difficulty I had interacting with the KBR civilians particularly was when the American [employees] told us how much they were paid. They always “felt bad” saying their salary was as high as it was, but they usually did, creating a strong resentment that our pay was so low in comparison. I am a heavy construction equipment operator and often came across civilians making 6-digit salaries for doing the same work as my platoon. The mayor cell [a unit in charge of facilities and infrastructure] on FOB Cobra, a smaller base, told us that they had been waiting a while for KBR to make their way there with equipment. They estimated that the work that took us less than a day to complete in our time off would have taken civilians an estimated six weeks. We were also floored by the outrageous estimate and compared it to the cost for our work; for my entire year of work, I made about $25,000; KBR wanted $40,000 to dig ditches [for six weeks] to help with the rain and level a parking lot.

KBR [also] took care of our generators. Our generator mechanics weren’t allowed to fix the generators if they went down because they belonged to KBR. So our generator mechanic [was sent to work in the supply department.] If any contractors were there performing jobs the military didn’t have trained personnel to do, I didn’t see them. Many soldiers even received bonuses for choosing their jobs, only to be retrained and replaced by KBR.

Generally, the civilians employed were personable and friendly with the soldiers and seemed like good people doing their part to cash in on the war. But looking back, my fondest memories of good service were not with civilians, but with those in the military who hadn’t yet had their jobs snatched up by civilians on smaller bases.

Rachel says it all in the first sentence of that last paragraph. Even good people, when placed in a context where capitalizing on the war rather than the well-being of the troops is the main objective, will fall prey to corruption, especially if the lack of basic accountability measures ensures they will get away with it.

What is interesting is the domino effect that has been happening ever since the Bush Administration started this war without providing enough resources for success. The sub-par payment given to our troops, combined with the reports trickling back to the public about poor treatment and inadequate resources, has done nothing to encourage more young people to enlist. I wonder if the administration took the billions upon billions of dollars provided to contractors and applied it to improving the pay packages and benefits for our troops, would this boost recruitment, thus allowing the use of contractors to be scaled back?

The bottom line is, by funneling resources to the contractors, instead of to the troops, the Pentagon is actually undermining the security of our forces. The Bush administration is the first to use the premise of security to defend its policies, but at Progressive Future, we don't think that the Pentagon's actions represent the true meaning of security. Security does not mean brute force with no accountability, it means ensuring the safety of the men and women who sign up to defend our country. It means making sure any U.S. presence overseas is held accountable for the things that people do in our name. It means cleaning up our international reputation so that the United States can be a valuable member of the global community. You can help Progressive Future send the Pentagon a message that the majority of Americans don't feel the use of private contractors in Iraq makes our country safer; many have already done so by signing our Call for Consequences.

Stay tuned tomorrow for Part II of this five-part series, where Rachel will share her firsthand account of the KBR dirty water scandal.

I recently overheard a young man criticizing anti-war folks for opposing war even though, “those people don't have the slightest clue what is going on over there.”

Well, perhaps that's true. But I would venture to guess that if more people truly knew, not just the events that occur in Iraq, but the contexts of rampant corruption with no accountability surrounding these events, this would in fact embolden war critics' opposition to the current situation in Iraq.

With Progressive Future, I have been working to get the word out about the frequent and inexcusable abuse and corruption of private contractors hired by the government to outsource the war's dirty work. Every scandal that surfaces further emphasizes the need for the American public to cry out in protest against these atrocities going on in our name. Things like soldiers dying of electrocution due to contractors' faulty wiring, a brigade of mercenaries opening fire in a public square and killing innocent Iraqis, contractors forcing our troops to shower and brush their teeth with water contaminated with larvae, bacteria and sewage because they neglected to carry out the chlorinated decontamination process.

But thinking further on the young man's comment, I have to wonder about the lack of outcry. And, sure, isolated incidents that crop up regarding instances of contractor abuse get reported, but I think it has to do with the quality of the reporting that allows us to emotionally remove ourselves from a situation that should induce pure outrage.

Today, Robert Koehler posted a column on the Huffington Post that provided some revealing insight as to why the nature of the current news coverage displaces the shock and indignation that should be a natural reaction to these stories. It's all about the context. The mainstream media does not report on the latest KBR scandal as a problem endemic in the way the administration decided to treat the destruction in Iraq as an open market ripe for profiteering. These incidents are reported with as little historical context and human experience as possible:

“The Los Angeles Times, for instance, in its May 4 story about the investigation of the Nisoor Square massacre, doesn't trouble us with references to other Blackwater shooting sprees; much less the larger context of invasion, mission accomplished, and five years of occupation in which more than a million Iraqis have died; much less the ample testimony of returning vets that "the hadjis" of occupied Iraq are routinely belittled, mistreated and dehumanized. If it had done so, the massacre in question would suddenly be a piece in a far larger picture that would make almost all Americans recoil in shame.”

So when I met Rachel, a formerly deployed Iraq veteran who was a primary witness in the scandal surrounding KBR's provision of contaminated water to the troops, I realized that the only way for us Americans to get a glimpse of the corrupt and destructive context surrounding the war was to share her firsthand testimony.

In my interviews with her, Rachel was so insightful and forthcoming with the stories of what she saw in Iraq, I decided to share her experiences in the form of a five-part blog series, “Who's Supporting Our Troops?” which will be posted in segments on the Progressive Future blog from Monday through Friday of next week. These entries will provide actions to help you become involved in the outcry against these egregious practices. I hope you will tune in next week for this special series.

We’ve already shared with you how much of the war effort in Iraq has been outsourced by the Bush-Cheney Administration to unaccountable military contractors like former Halliburton subsidiary KBR and Blackwater USA.  We’re already told you about the fraud, the waste and the abuse of American taxpayer dollars, and called for consequences.  We’ve shared our progressive values with you, and some policy prescriptions for getting America – and American troops – out of the current mess  that is the Bush “war on terror.”

But sometimes, something knocks your conscience so hard that it feels like a gut punch.  I can only imagine that’s how Cheryl Harris has felt every day since she learned the military contractor KBR negligently killed her son Ryan Maseth by electrocuting him when he stepped into the shower.

"Also, Harris was originally told by the military that her son had been electrocuted after he took a small electrical appliance into the shower area. She couldn't get answers herself and contacted a local member of Congress. Now documents show that Ryan was killed when an electrical water pump shorted out after he had stepped into the shower and turned on the water. An electrical current then passed through the water pipes to a metal shower hose in the shower."

KBR lied to a grieving mother about her son, who died serving his country – all because KBR messed up big time.

With a little help from a journalist, Ryan’s mom found out that at least 10 other military personnel have been electrocuted in Iraq in recent years. Now Ms. Harris is suing KBR, though there is evidence that the military and the Defense Contracting Management Agency are also to blame for being lax in its own inspections.

The real culprits, though, are the President and Vice President.  They have outsourced billions of dollars worth of work in Iraq to contractors, rather than supporting our troops.  Worse still, in refusing to provide oversight of these military contractors, they’ve acquiesced to reckless and lawless negligent behavior by these contractors.

Ryan’s story is heartbreakingly tragic.  But – worse still – Ryan is not alone.

But what about the other cases?

In a recent CNN interview, Ms. Harris said: “I'd like to have questions answered about who is accountable, and I'd like to know that this can't happen again to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Starting Monday, we have a bombshell blog to share with you, from Rachel, a friend of ours who is a U.S. soldier who served in Iraq and witnessed first-hand the negligence and abusive practices of KBR and other contractors like Blackwater USA.

I hope you'll join us for a very special blog series featuring Rachel's story. The series will be in 5 parts, Monday through Friday of next week, here on our blog, Building a Progressive Future.  You can subscribe to our blog through the RSS feed to stay updated on Rachel's story and more developments on contractor behavior.   Stay tuned.

- Hugh 

There is nothing so bad as shame.  We have all had moments when we’ve been deeply, personally ashamed of ourselves. 

In recent weeks, Michelle Obama has been criticized for implying that there have been moments when she’s been ashamed of our country, because of the failure of leadership by President Bush and Vice President Cheney.  Indeed, Fox News bloviator Bill O’Reilly threatened to lead a lynching party – a terror tactic favored by the Ku Klux Klan - against Michelle Obama. 

Of course, Michelle Obama – superlawyer, supermom, and All-American success story from the South Side of Chicago – symbolizes so much that can make us pause and have pride in our nation.  She embodies the hope and opportunity that makes America such an inspiring experiment in self-government in the name of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

So when Nicholas Kristof recently pointed out in the New York Times that Zimbabwe has better torture practices than the United States, and that Zimbabwe has better legal due process toward foreign detainees than the United States, I was ashamed.

Ashamed that Bush and Cheney are authorizing and directing the use of barbaric torture methods toward almost certainly innocent people like Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj, who was detained by the United States for almost six years and tortured.  al-Hajj, who was recently released, was beaten and interrogated 130 times.  In the name of the People of the United States.

I feel deeply ashamed.  This act violates my values.  It violates the values of the United States Constitution.  It stands in direct opposition to the values that we share as progressives: values like community, fairness, security and liberty.

How do we atone for crimes like these?  Crimes done in our names. 

To start with, we need to support a President who will support our shared progressive values.

We need to begin a withdrawal from Iraq and help that country secure its borders in the process so that it does not become a failed state.  The Government of We The People needs to start abiding by U.S. and international law, and indeed become once again a shining symbol of liberty and democracy to the world by practicing what it preaches.  And we need to remember the caution of Presidents from Washington to F.D.R. to Eisenhower: the Armed Forces needs to be continue to be under civilian leadership, and the military-industrial complex should not determine U.S. foreign policy goal-setting.

We also need to stop the waste, fraud and lethal abuses of military and other contractors.  We need to address the real threats: nuclear weapons, our economic problems and our dependent relationship on Chinese capital and labor, and the true ticking time-bomb: global warming.

I want to earn my atonement.  Please join me in helping our country atone for the crimes it has committed in our names.

Join us.

-          Hugh

The right of ordinary men and women to determine their own future, protected by the rule of law, lies at the heart of America's founding principles.

Thomas Jefferson?  Abraham Lincoln?  Which one of our great lawyer-Presidents proclaimed these stirring words? 

George W. Bush.   Yes, our current President has officially proclaimed today, May 1, to be Law Day.  I wish I was joking.  But this isn’t The Onion.  This isn’t George Orwell’s 1984.  It’s America 2008.

This is how George Bush has fulfilled his responsibility to protect the “rule of law.”

Legal limbo at Guantanamo and torture at Abu Ghraib.  Violating international law in order to invade Iraq.  Spying on innocent American citizens without a warrant.  Proclaiming the ability to detain U.S. citizens without charge or trial.  Signing statements to circumvent the will of Congress.  Running to the Supreme Court of the United States to stop Florida’s recount in the 2000 election.  This is George W. Bush’s legacy.

First and foremost, when our next President takes the oath of office, he or she must swear to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution to the best of his or her Ability and faithfully execute the Office of the Presidency.

What would this mean if we elected a President who shared our progressive values?  It would mean a President who respected the co-equal powers of Congress and the courts.  A President who did not spy on American citizens, or detain them without access to a lawyer or to the courts.  A President who by his or her example led all Americans to respect and obey the law.

Bush has not done this.  Whether or not that makes him impeachable – which isn’t likely going to happen - one thing is clear: Bush has not abided by his presidential oath. But his time is almost up.

 A progressive future is within our grasp.  Join us.

 - Hugh

Last week, we posted our Recent Outrage on the Pentagon's long-running (read: before September 11^th) campaign to groom retired Army officers to appear as “military analysts” on the mainstream media and to promote administration-generated talking points on the war.

I ventured that the muffling of war atrocities by the media stemmed what I predicted should be an inevitable outcry against the unjust and corrupt war.

This week, in response to the Times article and the outrage generated amongst progressives and others who care about the truth the Pentagon announced it's suspending it's program.
 
That's great news. Kudos to the Times for breaking the story. But history, very recent history as a matter of fact, shows that we can't rely on the mainstream media to regularly publish these stories . . .

The mainstream media is big business. It's focus on attracting advertisers (read: other big businesses) and maintaining the bottom line, rather than delivering unbiased reporting, is a blow to our security, livelihood and civic interests. For example, early in the primary race, a debate on CNN between the Democratic candidates was co-opted by the coal industry wherein no questions were asked on global climate change and advertising for the 'clean' energy alternative was omnipresent. Fox News continues to be a broadcast platform for the administration's conservative and religiously intolerant policies.

However, we can take stock of victories like the suspension of the Pentagon's analyst briefing program and realize that any instance of citizen advocacy will make a difference, because it keeps the media in check. Some have said that the media is our fourth branch of government. If this is true, I say let the public be the fifth, using our personal prerogative to always look to alternative sources to find the true story as our method of checks and balances. I would ask those of you who haven't yet signed the Petition for an Open Media to do so, and together we can begin chipping away at the system of corporate dominance.