Iraq Book Excerpt 3 - Halliburton

It was soon after arrival that I first started to realize the all-encompassing power U.S. government contractors held over life in the camps. I would eat in a mess hall controlled by Halliburton subsidiary KBR (Kellogg, Brown and Root), the Vice-President’s former company. I would sleep in a KBR trailer in a KBR bed with my government-issued clothes kept in a KBR closet. I would shower and shit in a KBR latrine, do my laundry in a KBR trailer, and go to see a KBR doctor in a KBR hospital when I got sick. My food was brought in by KBR and served by labor imported by KBR from India, Nepal and the Philippines. The gym, movie theater, and Internet connections were all controlled by Halliburton. Failure to follow Halliburton rules could get you in trouble with Halliburton security and banned from Halliburton facilities – all separate from whatever job you were doing in the warzone that should, in theory, take precedence over private contractors and war profiteering.

While the term ‘war profiteer’ may seem out of line, hear me out. Several weeks after I arrived at the camp, and in response to the rocket and mortar attacks, the Brits and Aussies ordered all of their personnel out of our quarters and into separate living facilities with ceilings hardened against the incoming fire. The Halliburton buildings, with their flimsy trailer park roofs, were deemed too unsafe for British and Australian soldiers and civilians.

The cost of getting some bags and filling them with the plentiful local sand, thus hardening the roofs of the trailers where U.S. soldiers and civilians lived, was deemed too expensive – leaving the buildings and anyone inside vulnerable. One wonders how many people will have to be killed in a mortar attack before Halliburton profits give way to U.S. lives. To save the cost of some bags and a few roof reinforcement bars, U.S. personnel live unprotected, while the Brits and Aussies live in hardened buildings, joking about the Halliburton bonus that must surely await VP Cheney when he returns to the private sector.

Of course I didn’t volunteer to go to a warzone because I wanted to be safe. No one does. Nor do I fail to see the expense that would be involved in protecting the far larger U.S. contingent in the same way the Brits and Aussies are protected.

My point however, is that when I hear some politician on TV going on about how, “everything possible is being done to protect American servicemen and women in Iraq,” I can’t help but feel they are either lying or sorely mistaken.

“Everything” is not being done to protect Americans in Iraq, not even close. And, just like with the lack of up-armored HUMVEEs-issue a couple of years ago, it’s either going to take an embarrassing question from a G.I. at a press conference, or some deaths from a rocket attack on a trailer park, before “everything possible” will include putting sandbag protection over the trailers where my friends and colleagues live. No matter your acceptance of the term ‘war profiteer’, when it comes to protection vs. profits the winner in this case has clearly been profits.

Other contractors were plentiful too, but many of them were either Halliburton subsidiaries or sub-contractors working off the main Halliburton contract. As my office responsibilities faded away in Baghdad all that remained were two contractors and myself. Down in Qatar nearly all of the people in the office I was assigned were also contractors, mainly retired or former military people. There was always a government or military person in charge, at least nominally, but a lot of work that would have been performed by the government or military in past wars is being done by contractors in this one.

I worked at least two hours a day longer, plus several hours on Sunday, but only pulled in about 70-75% of what the contractors I was working with were paid. I’m not saying good or bad here, it is what it is. Relations between the various parts of the war effort – military, contractor, and government, at least at the personal level, were quite good. As most of the contractors had been in the military, either for a hitch or a career, they understood the culture and nature of the work far better than many of us in government.

In discussions with higher-ups the amount of work done by contractors was a concern occasionally voiced. What would happen if they suddenly up and left, lost their contract or (highly unlikely) went on strike for more money? Or if an emergency happened and they were needed to put in extra hours – would they do it?

We all knew some who would, without even a second thought. But we also knew those who’d be less sanguine about the extra demands. At my level, and with the guys I worked with, this wasn’t a major worry, but I heard concerns voiced by those above me everywhere I worked in the Defense Department – the Pentagon, Qatar, and Iraq.

The best way to sum it up, from a government worker perspective anyway, was that the military gets all the respect, the contractors get all the money, and the government workers? Well, when we return home we get a nice certificate thanking us for our service.