From a friend serving in Iraq:

 I’ve had some
amazing experiences here in country and have met many wonderful Iraqi
citizens.  They are like us in that they, too, seek only to make a
living, live in peace, and are thankful Saddam is gone.  My
interactions have helped to confirm for me that the United States did
the right thing in removing Saddam Hussein from power.  Of that, I am
very proud.  However, the purpose of this letter is to share with
those of you back home what I’ve experienced in my 7 months in
country.

The majority of my tour has centered around reconstruction projects.
In fact, the American military is primarily focused on this mission as
there’s really not much else for them to do here.  Therein lies the
problem as the country has been largely pacified, with only the
occasional act of violence amongst the populace, civilian
reconstruction experts should be here overseeing this process, not the
untrained military leadership.  I’ve been witness to a pattern of
wasteful and frivolous spending relative to these so-called
reconstruction projects proposed by military leadership.  Now, while I
am very proud of the young men and women I have served with, I can
tell you, I am not really proud of what I have witnessed relative to
the expenditure of taxpayer money on what most soldiers I serve with
deem to be silly, insignificant reconstruction projects.

I’ve witnessed millions of dollars spent on the installation of solar
street lights throughout Baghdad, despite the fact that this country
has the second highest oil reserves in the world!  Rather than install
grid-tied street lights, military leadership has elected, for some
reason, to focus on installing solar lights.  It gets very dusty over
here and the components will be costly to replace down the road when
needed, especially when compared to the typical grid-tied lights.
Most of us are skeptical that these same lights will still be
functioning properly in a few years.  At around $6000-$8000/light on
average, the projects usually come in around $500k each.

Furthermore, Iraqis are still experiencing inconsistent electrical
output.  I’ve not seen any projects in my AO (area of operation)
relative to upgrading the electrical grid and replacing the spiderwebs
of wiring so prevalent in Baghdad neighborhoods.  We’ve even had one
soldier get electrocuted while his MRAP ran into one of these numerous
wires, which resemble a spider web of dangerous electrical current.
The fact that electrical service is still in such disarray after
nearly 6 years in country is worth investigating in and of itself.
Sewage waste still flows freely throughout many parts of the area as
well.  Where is the priority and planning?  I can tell you, there
appears to be none.

We’ve also used taxpayer money to fund microgrants, which are a
$2500-5000 giveaway of taxpayer money to Iraqi businessmen, most of
whom already own a business.  There is very little oversight in the
giveaway process and I fear that we are simply attempting to buy
support with little real effort made to ensure there is no fraud or
abuse of the program.  I’ve personally been tasked with writing
hundreds of microgrants and have never even set eyes on the applicant
or his/her business.  I truly do not even know if the money wound up
in their hands nor what it was used for, if so.  It’s a terrible idea
and the practice should be ended.

Just yesterday, 29May09, it came to my attention that despite the SOFA
agreement and the June 30th deadline for US troops to
leave most of the major cities in Iraq, thus handing over further
control of the country to the Iraqis, military leadership is looking
to quickly spend over $540 million dollars on hastily thrown together
projects simply for the sake of spending the money.  The timeline
given to spend it is 01Sep09.  I am angry and embarrassed to be a part
of such an effort when so many folks back home are out of work,
over-taxed, and our country is facing an economic catastrophe.

I implore you at home to contact your elected representatives in order
to put a stop to this frivolous spending by military leadership.  It’s
not right, it’s wasteful, and I feel borderline criminal as the intent
appears to not be focused on the proper reconstruction of Iraq, but
rather, finding projects which can be completed in a timely manner in
order to spend the available funds and pad their own resume for
military promotion.  As stewards of the public’s money, we have a
responsiblity to see that it’s spent wisely.  For my part, I will
refuse to participate in upcoming endeavors to spend this money in
such fashion.  Frankly, It’s time for us to leave Iraq as there’s
nothing left for us to do over here.  It’s time to reduce our
footprint even further and allow the Iraqis to take control of their
future, including their own reconstruction projects and with their own
money.  We can no longer afford to throw money away in such a fashion.

On a side note, I am certain I will be reprimanded for writing about
what so many of my fellow soldiers can only complain about in the
privacy of their living quarters.  For me, my involvement with the
military was not about pay or advancement, but patriotism and love of
country.  I feel I would be remiss in my duties as a patriotic citizen
if I did not speak out against those practices of which I see as
wrong.  Unfortunately, soldiers higher in rank than myself have
complained about these expenditures and have been told to be quiet and
simply do their job.  Therefore, I feel compelled to do what others
won’t. 

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 30th, 2009 at 10:55 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.