THIS IS FRUSTRATING

I've written many times before that the Bush regime doesn't seem to care all that much for our troops but the wingnuts keep on braying that only they care for the troops. One of my early posts is from 2004 and recounts how then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz didn't even know the number of U.S. casualties in Iraq and since then we've learned that troops with PTSD have been sent back to Iraq and Afganistan. Now we learn of more neglect.

Electrical Risks at Iraq Bases Are Worse Than Said
By JAMES RISEN
Published: July 18, 2008
NY Times

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.

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.

The Army report said KBR, the Houston-based company that is responsible for providing basic services for American troops in Iraq, including housing, did its own study and found a “systemic problem” with electrical work.