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Bloated in Baghdad
CAMP STRYKER, Iraq - The first warning that many U.S. troops receive here in Baghdad isn't about the rampant IEDs (improvised explosive devices), or the RPGs (rocket propelled grenades), or even the EFPs (explosively formed projectiles). It's about the PCPs: the pervasive combat paunches.
As I wait for my C-130 flight from Kuwait to western Baghdad, a soldier tells me about a PowerPoint slide that's becoming popular in Army briefings: "Back in 2003, the average soldier lost 15 pounds during his tour of Iraq," he recounts. "Now, he gains 10."
Arriving at Camp Stryker, I get to savor the dilemma firsthand. My low-slung Army tent is pitched just down the road from a Pizza Hut, a Burger King and a Green Beans Coffee -- the war-zone cousin of Starbucks that sells mocha frappes for a cheeky $4.25. Around the corner sits a massive chow hall run by former Halliburton subsidiary KBR Inc. where troops load up on four varieties of fried meats and five flavors of Baskin Robbins. The facility is billed as "all-you-can-eat," and, trust me, soldiers do.
Traveling all the way to a war zone to report on military calorie counts may seem like the height of triviality, especially as Baghdad's security situation implodes. But Camp Stryker's butterball cuisine is more than a frivolous aside; it's an entree into the general engorgement of the war itself.
Where, for instance, do the mountains of beef patties, pecan pies and Coco Puffs come from? The Houston-based KBR farms out most of its $27-billion government contract to Gulf states middlemen, who greet initial food shipments in Kuwait. Low-wage Pakistani and Nepali subcontractors then distribute the goods to U.S. mess halls, where even lower-wage Indians and Sri Lankans prepare them for the troops. All along the route are markups galore, sometimes exceeding 500 percent.
This logistical gravy train creates the unchecked fat on America's profile here in Baghdad. The bloat applies to basic counterinsurgency strategy, too. Even after Gen. David Petraeus shifted several units out of giant bases and into Joint Security Stations -- humbler urban outposts where soldiers, to use the general's words, live "among those we are trying to protect" -- the average U.S. camp remains a behemoth and a glutton. Over 70 percent of American troops here are classified as "support" forces, meaning they may never step outside the wire to engage in local operations or address community grievances over a customary glass of chai. These big-base bureaucrats are known to front-line soldiers as "Fobbits"-- a play on the acronym for "forward-operating base" (FOB) that echoes J.R.R. Tolkien's plump, provincial milquetoasts.
The whole scenario unfolds to the ironic soundtrack of "support the troops." The FOB experience in Iraq, particularly on larger posts, is defined by countless privatized efforts to console and distract: mini-marts where soldiers can buy PlayStations and Harley-Davidsons; KBR recreation facilities where they can shoot pool or take salsa lessons; fast food joints where they can kick back with a non-alcoholic beer and a personalized pizza. Such perks ostensibly make soldiers feel more at home. But many insist that the surreal arrangement only highlights what they've been asked to leave behind. A baseline fact remains: Troops' psyches can't be bought with bikes or bacon double cheeseburgers (or re-enlistment bonuses, or college loans, or fill-in-the-latest-bait) -- especially after Gen. George Casey's acknowledgment that "the current demand for our forces exceeds the sustainable supply."
Passing time in a rec tent back in Kuwait, I chat with a soft-spoken 28-year-old sergeant who is preparing to fly back into the caldron of Baghdad's Sadr City after three weeks of R&R in Georgia. In a room strewn with crepe paper palm trees and plastic hula skirts left over from the previous night's "Spring Fling Luau," the two of us look like attendees at a cornball junior prom. But the sergeant's mind is a long way from such frivolities: He has recently lost his squad leader, and two other soldiers from his area of operations were killed a few days later.
Burying his head in his hands as we talk, he says: "All the Burger Kings in the world wouldn't be enough for this. Some of us are on our third or fourth tours, and we just can't do this anymore -- we really can't."
Copyright © 2008 Truthdig, L.L.C.
94 Comments so far
Show All"So many troops are coming home with mental problems because modern day Americans aren't made for modern warfare."
I was sort of thinking that Americans aren't made to be overlord occupiers of a sovereign country. That's not what this country is about. This isn't a war, it's an occupation.
These corporations are killing Americans there and here more efficiently than any "insurgent".
banjo - Planning on sending your kids to McSame's 100-yr war to perpetuate Cheney's oil profits? Just wondrin'.
Thank you banjoman for breaking the monotony of censensus. We need a caveman here and there to keep us awake. keep up the good work!
Banjoman- How many deaths have been 'prevented' by the UTTERLY ILLEGAL use of CLUSTER BOMBS IN SADR CITY....a poverty stricken CIVILIAN section of Baghdad?
The DELIBERATE BOMBING of CIVILIAN TARGETS is A WAR CRIME! This is defined in the UN charter, as well as the NUREMBERG PROTOCOLS! Bombing civilian targets is classified as a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY by the GENEVA CONVENTIONS!
You are so quick to stand up in defense of the murderous action of US soldiers and their commanders, all the way to the Whitehouse. Did you ever even stop to consider that you are defending the IDENTICAL actions that Nazi Germany committed? Do you also defend the acts of TORTURE that were approved ALL THE WAY TO THE DESK OF GEORGE W.BUSH? Acts of torture that are a COMPLETE VIOLATION of US and international law, as well as the US Constitution? The very same Constitution that as a soldier (as you all too frequently remind us of how proud you were to wear the uniform) you SWORE to defend from all enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC?!
THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS A COUP! THEY ARE THE VERY EVIL YOU SWORE TO DEFEND AGAINST!
IF you answer yes to defending these utterly immoral, criminal actions, then may you be called to answer for your actions. And submit to the judgement you will so richly have earned.
Democrats' latest budgeting compromise should be relabeled:
"Guns and Butter for Butter"
Also, just remember the SHEER MONSTROUS SIZE of the so-called 'US embassy' in Baghdad.
That is not an embassy.
It is the command center/governor's palace for the undeclared Protected State of Iraq.
Think about it.
Iraq is the NEW PEURTO RICO!
And just like PR, the population is subject to random bombardment of it's territories.
This entire article is just the gentle reminder that the US is committing CULTURAL GENOCIDE! I have even seen an article about the Disney planned and supported Iraq theme park. (the article is on Global Research for those who are interested...)
Hoa Binh, John Freeman & mairs -
"The troops know they have been given an impossible task. It's a war they can not win. It's a political war. The winners will be the politicians who orchestrated the war, not the troops who fought it."
I spent 13 months near the Korean DMZ during '69-'70. There is an enormous, mind boggling difference between the current occupation of Iraq by US forces, and the "occupation" of South Korea (or post-WW II Japan or Germany) by American troops.
It absolutely infuriates me to hear Little George, John McCain, and other supposedly national security savvy civilian leaders (and of course General Petraeus) fall back upon such dangerous, half-baked analogies to justify more tinkering with counterinsurgency strategies and force levels, while the US media uncritically slurps the comparisons up with a spoon. Now that McCain has clarified that he'll maintain the occupation if elected President for ten years, or a hundred more years provided there's "no, or very few" American casualties, somebody (vets perhaps?) need to speak up about how this scenario is not only historical horseshit, but reckless, wacky, and wishful strategic thinking.
As to "the politicians who orchestrated the war" being "the winners" in Iraq, I say don't count those chickens until they've hatched and come fully home to roost.
What I find most interesting in Sarah Stillman's article is the level of blatant, tax subsidized profiteering involved just in feeding our forces stationed in Iraq. If the politicians who did the war's orchestrating are later discovered to have also profited financially, the returning troops will be leading the push to send some big Bushies off to the big house.
Bill from Saginaw
Lovely and inspiring reporting Sarah !
The devil is in the details !
Talk about minions of the capitalist pigs !
Our young here at home are often too fat to even enlist although I understand they have lowered the bar on obesity and felonies so more of the proud and the few can go to Iraq and kill for oil corporations while eating themselves into an early grave.
Forget about IED's, these murdering morons are going to keep eating until they explode !
And what about brothels and comfort women? Are these contracted through KBR? Or do some soldiers force their chances with the local population or colleagues?
banjoman,
The Iraqi "insurgent animals", just like the "communist monkeys" in another land we invaded, are merely fighting to drive the invaders off their soil and punish the traitors and mercenary spies who collaborate with the invader.
The occupation is the cause of the violence, so rest assured, If the US would simply leave, there would be peace. The overwhelming majority of Iraqis have expressed this in surveys.
If the US was invaded by a foreign state, who's side would you be on? And, would you show traitors and spies any sympathy?
Every day at Cameron Bay in Vienam, a dozen or more C-141s arrived, loaded with fresh vegetables, 40 pound boxes of beef, chicken, pork, fresh fruit, coffee, milk and tea, beer and whiskey. Others arrived with loads of window air conditioners and small refrigerators, while cargo ships offloaded other "critical" supplies.
My room at "Herky Hill" on Cameron Bay, was air ocnditioned, I had a refrig, usually stuffed with beer, ice and food. The best chowhall I ever ate in during my 23 year Air Force career was at Hue in 1969.
It was an Army mess run by a young corporal and the food was as good as any five star hotel restaurant. All you wanted for the hour it was open for breakfast, dinner or supper. There were no corrupt KBR contracts then where Cheney's earned a kickback. The officers had the same food, only that screened off area had tablecloths, sterling siver and waitresses.
For breakfast, a dozen eggs to order if desired, three types of meat, SOS, fresh baked danish, fruit juices, coffee, milk, cereals, pankckes, toast, hash browns or home fries and a variety of fresh or canned fruits. We also had the Stars and Stripes daily newsparer to read to see if we were winning or losing the war.
I had a Marine Sgt Major stay in my room at Cameron, he used the other bed, which like the rest of our room and laundry was taken care of by a Vietnamese housemaid who earned $2 bucks a week from myself and twenty others and any gifts of soap, candy, canned food, etc, we gave her. She was a swell little old lady. Our romms were spotless when we came in after a 12 hour shift of duty or a two day tour of flying supplies in-country.
That Marine sergant could have spent two weeks R and R in Bancock, Taipai, or Tokyo. Al he wanted was clean sheets, daily hot water showers and peace and quiet. Funny, We had a rocket and sapper attack the third night he was there. The only one the Cameron Bay base ever had. Hue, Danang, etc, had em almost every night.
And the C and K rations we had during the Korean conflict and for a few years after were alright ~BANJOMAN~. Whatever your silly and childish point was?
The point I see of this article is, to display the incredible stupidity of war and just an example of how wasteful, corrupt and insane it all is. Also why it's costing us, we the people, billions every month to have troops in Iraq. For what? ___ For what? ___ We know for what?
Good posts: SINCE 1942: "Only the enlightened warrior understands the BENEFITS of peace."
GALEN/GREENER THAN THOU: Good work trying to bring sanity to those so blinded by jingoism they cannot see.
What Congress Really Approved: Benchmark No. 1: Privatizing Iraq's Oil for US Companies
By Ann Wright
t r u t h o u t | Guest Contributor
(complete article should be read by anyone who thinks there is something honorable or Christian about occupying Iraq)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/052607Z.shtml
Saturday 26 May 2007
"On Thursday, May 24, the US Congress voted to continue the war in Iraq. The members called it "supporting the troops." I call it stealing Iraq's oil - the second largest reserves in the world. The "benchmark," or goal, the Bush administration has been working on furiously since the US invaded Iraq is privatization of Iraq's oil. Now they have Congress blackmailing the Iraqi Parliament and the Iraqi people: no privatization of Iraqi oil, no reconstruction funds."
" This threat could not be clearer. If the Iraqi Parliament refuses to pass the privatization legislation, Congress will withhold US reconstruction funds that were promised to the Iraqis to rebuild what the United States has destroyed there. The privatization law, written by American oil company consultants hired by the Bush administration, would leave control with the Iraq National Oil Company for only 17 of the 80 known oil fields. The remainder (two-thirds) of known oil fields, and all yet undiscovered ones, would be up for grabs by the private oil companies of the world (but guess how many would go to United States firms - given to them by the compliant Iraqi government.)"
"Ann Wright served 29 years in the US Army and US Army Reserves and retired as a colonel. She served 16 years in the US diplomatic corps in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Micronesia and Mongolia. She resigned from the US Department of State in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq."
And what was that bumper sticker back during the Nam era ?
KILL FOR PEACE
It's none of your business what I did in the service ~LIZARD~. Vietnam wasn't exactly a vacation BTW. Some days there were no clean sheets or decent food, some days we had to fight, or hide from rocket attacks or crawl out of a burning shot down C-130.
Many of the combat troops had it really bad for an entire year. I shed my share of blood and we lost thousands of our servicemen there and many more thousands of Vietnamese were wounded or died for no good reason. I was no more responsible for that unjust war or the ones currently being conducted than any other American citizen is.
I never saw any war crimes occur there, but know there were many. Just starting those wars is a war crime. I don't appreciate havng an asshole like you respond to my posts, but realize it may happen and sometimes does and I don't allow it to bother me one little bit, I will usually respond to them.
This site is to learn from one another, exchange ideas and opinions and offer experiences to fortify the authors whenever possible. We can also take time to have a little fun here at times. You are neither, informative, fun nor funny. You still on drugs "Doctor" Lizard?
As I read this I couldn't help but remember the following essay published here yesterday: Is There an Army Cover Up of Rape and Murder of Women Soldiers? In that light it bears asking, how much of "home" have the war profiteers brought with them to Iraq?
Kem Patrick: How nice to hear of your vacation in vietnam. Did you commit any war crimes or just watched them happen? 23 YEARS in the air force. DID YOU DROP ANY BOMBS? Any idea who you murdered? Thank you for your service.
Alice in Wonderland time: We have to stay there to prevent their deaths.
Oh poor you. You must have suffered so much between killings.
As irreverent and contentious as this thread has become it would be nice to mention that many Iraqis do not have enough to eat.
Fat Americans in a starving world pretty much sums up the situation.
I'd like to thank all the democrats for keeping our troops trapped in Iraq.
Be sure to vote for democrats this fall, and then act shocked when nothing changes.
Ok, friends, please share your observations here as a sort of fact-check. One guardsman from my building served a 15 month tour in Iraq. He left here much thinner than most Americans. He came back (thank God for that) absolutely SKINNY!
So, I don't buy the premise of this piece, except for the last 2 paragraphs.
Anyone else care to share?
Just think.
US servicemen are gorging themselves on personal pizzas. And Starbucks latte. And Burger King.
All while there are food riots in Haiti, and the specter of food rationing raises it's head in North America.
This should be some interesting times. As in the Chinese curse....
KEM- Thanks for sharing your perspective on your service. No rah-rah chest thumping like Banjo. Makes me wonder if Banjo's hitch was along the lines of a certain scion of the Bush family and his 'Champagne Squadron' service...
So, while the vile occupiers bloat their bellies in their "Green Zone" and bases, Iraqi corpses bloat under the rubble of their homes.
skeezyks,
A single anecdote does not discount Ms. Stillman's story. As someone who dines an a number of government facilities, the story seems very believable to me.
Sarah Stillman has rendered a great service by bringing this to the attention of the general public. The military recruiters must pick up on this and turn it in to a recruitment tool. "All you can eat all the time". The recruitment shortage will disappear in an instant.
a little trickle down economics for the supply and distribution? sure, what's wrong with that? more free market than development projects for nepal.
and what's wrong with a little distraction for the troops? maybe it helps postpone the PTSD and extend the viability of a soldier for another tour.
it's well past the time to be surprised by how grotesque this war is. a handful of corporations (aka major shareholders) have, are and will profit handsomely, and the peoples of iraq, american soldiers and their families, and middle and working class americans will pay for it.
if you don't like it, stop voting in representatives who perpetuate the cycle, divest yourself of the companies that profit, and support voices of dissent.
and skeezyks, you are completely missing the point.
Would you rather them consume a tin of food dated 1952 Korea and a pack of Lucky Strikes.
I have, and they've much to be desired.
You must have not been to busy to write this one.
In the words of Pat Paulsen...and I quote...
Picky...Picky...Picky
banjoman
So many troops are coming home with mental problems because modern day Americans aren't made for modern warfare. Our understanding of war is out of whack with the reality of what war is like today. We were good at conventional warfare. We could operate successfully when the terms of war were clearly established. The enemy was clearly defined. There were front lines and everyone wore uniforms. And war always took place outside of the US. However, since WW2 warfare has changed. But our image of war has not. We still think that war can be a solution to a political problem. We still think we can fight war in a humane way. We still think war will bring about positive change. This is why so many vets are experiencing PTSD when they return from America's current wars. They have many contradictions bouncing around in their heads. They are shocked by what they see and experience. And many can't deal with the death of so many civilians, especially women and children. (A lesson unlearned from the Vietnam War.) Except for their families, they return to a country that basically doesn't know about, and doesn't care about, what they have been doing the last year. They come home with a new definition of war in their mind, to a country that still gets its war information and images from TV. Fitting back in isn't easy when you feel like complaining all the time. The troops know they have been given an impossible task. It's a war they can not win. It's a political war. The winners will be the politicians who orchestrated the war, not the troops who fought it.
You go to war expecting to see and experience what your mind has defined as war. It's the responsibility of the veterans to overhaul our society's definition of war. A Department of Peace would be a good start.
Hoa binh
"Would you rather them consume a tin of food dated 1952 Korea and a pack of Lucky Strikes."
No, I would rather all these vile obese, arrogant Amerikkans pack their fucking bags, and go home.
banjo - I've told you before, if it sounds so good killing gooks, I mean ragheads, in Baghdad while scarfing down fast food from Cheney's victory compost heap, by all means go. Go and do us all a favor.
Usan,
And what would happen just by going home? Hundreds of thousands would be systimatically massacered by these insurgent animals.
And don't go saying "thats what you Ammerrikkannns did" either.
Doesn't sound very kind and compassionate to me, and neither does it to you'' It's not that simple...perhaps you need to grow up a little....at least have a good nap.
By the way, do you kiss your mother with a foul mouth like that? Well, DO YOU???????
wcdev...you never heard me use terms like gook, raghead, "towelhead" etc. Boy oh boy, you CD addicts love to call names. How mature? I'll ask my kids.
lookin' out for you.....banjoman
This is one big abuse shame cycle. How dare BushCheneyRice, et cabal submit these soldiers to this Hellish fate, not to mention every sentient being they come in contact with! For what good purpose, what honor? Bush has been running from this question for years now. As well as from Real heroes like The Sheehans and The Tilmans and others. If our soldiers are our creation, our progeny, this is akin to child abuse. It is certainly Planet and Humanity abuse!
banjoman speaks like right wingers I know.
Disregarding the Iraqis slaughtered during Gulf Massacre 1, disregarding the estimated 500,000 dead during the sanctions decade, disregarding the 1,000,000 dead in the last 5 years, he believes that the American presence in Iraq is PREVENTING DEATHS!
How deluded do you have to be to believe such a thing?
Especially since the "civil war" didn't start until 2005, when the US ruling class announced that they were turning to the "Salvadorean Solution" and the death squads were set up by John Negroponte and James Steele, veterans of the death squads of the 1980s in Central America.
We don't know what would happen if the US pulled out of Iraq, but it couldn't be worse for the already dead, and it may be better for the millions who have been driven from their homes, or locked into their neighborhoods by concrete barricades, who are harassed by checkpoints and troops breaking into their homes. We certainly can't assume that things would be worse.
We have not even started to pay the butchers bill for this mess. Many of our soldiers are going to come back as killers either of themselves or their spouses, not to speak of the hundreds of thousands of people they have already killed over there. I find it difficult to hold a single one of the people in the Middle East as my enemy, but our government has other goals than many of us. The rich make money, the soldiers are broken tools who are going to be sleeping under the overpasses of America for the next 40 years. Not to worry about the breakage, our government knows how to obtain others to do the dirty work. If you doubt that, About half the homeless in America are Vietnam Veterans.
Veteran '66-68
So tell us ~Lizard~ when one of your Canadian Mounties kills a citizen with a tazer, do you try to stop it, or do you just watch and have a orgasism? ___ You sick minded soul. Thanks for trying to screw up a deceent thread here once again with your incredible rants.
Excellent point Kalia, this entire conquest of Iraq has been nothng more than money for Halliburton, KBr, Cheney and some other bastards who are ruining our nation. If McCain is elected it will continue.
If starting those wars is a war crime, then participating in them must be also. Is an apology not , therefore, warranted? Should you not be punished?
"Many of our soldiers are going to come back as killers"
Especially now that the army is recruiting criminals, and the mentally ill. If any of them need that final push over the edge, a couple of years of shooting ragheads with absolute impunity is sure to do it.
Another interesting problem on the horizon is gang members coming back from the war with a first-hand knowledge of just how helpless straight society is against IEDs. Expect police stations - and police - to be bombed so regularly that it stops making the news.
By some of the opinions stated here, anyone who ever served in militay service should be arrested and placed in prison. We shouldn't have a military. I suppose that makes good sense to some. Wonder how that might turn out?
What we need, is a president who isn't crazy and a government that is not fascist, our government currenty is and that's our fault. Not even half of us bother to vote.
The Vietnam War was immoral. Those who led it should be in prison. The same is true of Iraq. If those who participate would learn from Muhammed Ali and Lt.Watada and do what is right, and their constitutional duty, they would not serve. It is unrealistic to suggest prison for the entire US army, but would it be wrong?
ALL of our military who have served in Iraq or Afganastan are going to come back contaminted with DU and will suffer from radiation poisoning, or PTSD in some degree of contaminatiom.
The DU radiation readings in downtown Baghdad are 2,000 times above the safe limit. So if they return as killers, as you state ~PAUL M~, many will be crazy or seriously depressed also.
http://www.gulfwarvets.com/du_blowinginthewind.htm
Oh, I see ~LIZARD~. it is unrealistic to suggest prison for the ENTIRE US army, but Kem Patrick should be punished.___ Please do come and get me.
You're friggin nuts you know. __ Well NO, of course you don't know. Go snuff up some glue, or whatever it is you snuff and write some more stupidity here and display your ignorance and lack of any common sense.
My God, why in hell did I ever reply to this asshole? It's screwing the thread up. I won't reply to him again. It's not even humerous.
The 200million donated by the US to try to address the current world food problems is a pittance.We need to withdraw from Iraq immediately-bring home the thousands of troops from Japan and Europe and close all but a handful of the hundreds of overseas bases.Then we'd be in a much better position to invest in the many urgent needs at home and still have funds for humanitarion needs worldwide.
A true peace candidate is desperately needed.
Amen ~KLEVER~ Amen!!
look at the bigger picture...the military in total has lost at least 720,000lbs since 2003
(180lbs x 4000)
Be very thankful none of them were your children ~Canuckchuck~. You forgot the fifty for this month so far and didn't mention over a million Iraqis, including innocent women and children. Maybe your other canuck the ~Lizard~ can help you out there.
You are a "riot".
Of course I'd imagine if any of your children were killed in Iraq, they'd most likely weigh lots more than 180 pounds, if they were as full of crap as you are.
Lizard in his insulting and rude way has posed a question I would be interested to hear peoples thoughts on.
If war is wrong then does participating in a war put one in the wrong?
If everybody refused to fight then there could be no war.
Would the threat of punishment later be a deterrent to stop people fighting in a war? Would it stop people joining the military or maybe increase the number of conscientious objectors who refused to fight in certain wars?
If it did work to dissuade people from fighting in wars would this be a good law for a peaceloving country?
An interesting philosophical question I thought even if Lizard was an ass about it.
mikk
Remember the Milo Minderbinder character in "Catch 22"? Sounds like KBR is the institutional equivalent. We're definitely making progress when we take the war-profiteering out of the hands of individuals.
What Milo demonstrated in Catch 22 was that US corporations slowly took over (with military backing) the economies of the newly US occupied parts of Europe.
In Catch 22, Lt. Milo Finderbinder grew to have much more power and influence than all the generals and their men. All deferred to the Lt. because he incorporated the Italian economy.
For example, the old fashioned, and ancient Italian method of prostitution (which was semi-organized into family owned brothels) was efficiently reorganized and corporatized into Milo Enterprises.
After the reorganization, each customer had to wait in line after taking a number.
Today, US corporations and the US military work hand-in-hand during the post-20th c. wars of conquest and occupation. The US corporate franchises sprouting in Iraq's forward bases diminish the time spent in line.
While "visiting" Iraq, US GIs can usually find a place to eat abundantly, shit, shower, cool off, entertain themselves, and drink loads of cool drinks, the average Iraqi cannot do so in his or her own country.
In fact, the Baghdad Iraqis many times find themselves imprisoned in their own neighborhoods as these neighborhoods are many times surrounded by 12 foot high walls.
They got a good deal from the US invasion and occupation. Didn't they?
Kem Patrick and Lizard
Lizard: stop being rude. It blocks others from reading about the combat and occupation experiences of other contributors.
Anyway, you don't really want to be a cold-blooded lizard, do you?
If you really want to condemn anyone, condemn all of the rich nations (and their peoples) because they all need the US military to substain the unequal exchange system that allows the wealthy to prey upon and suck the wealth from the impoverished, wretched of the earth.
Kem:
Keep us posted. I learn alot from you.
I was a military brat who had to live at Clark AFB because my dad was napalming the Ho Chi Mihn Trail.
Even he eventually wanted out. Because the Trail was so heavily defended with anti-aircraft guns, my Dad observed many US bombers (B 52s) in his squadron drop their load on unauthorized and unprotected civilian targets so as to not face these guns.
As a result, my Dad asked for a transfer to navigate those huge cargo planes (C 130s). He asked and got this transfer even though everyone knew that C 130s were almost deathtraps. (Many times, they would slowly lumber into a military runway loaded to the gills with high explosives; as such, they were excellent targets from snipers.)
Lizard. The Southeast Asian wars changed my Dad from a black-and-white person into a somewhat human father. However, he still maintained his cracky Rightwing views.