Winds of Change.NET: "You'll Never Know What We Did"

September 13, 2006

"You'll Never Know What We Did"

by 'Callimachus' at September 13, 2006 5:15 AM

Part 1 of a series: "You'll Never Know What We Did" | " I Learned to Handle Myself..." | "I Wasn't Chasing Blood"

My friend, Kat, worked in and around Iraq for roughly two years, for a U.S.-based contractor doing reconstruction work there.

I've picked up bits and pieces of her story as she's written to me from abroad, but recently she's been back in a place with regular Internet access and some time on her hands, and I finally got to ask her some questions and she got to write some full answers. We've talked a lot about her experience over there, and the more I read the more I wanted to tell it. She gave me permission to distill down some of her letters and our chats into a post.

Reconstruction is the eternally under-reported third leg of the Iraq story (the other two are overthrow of Saddam and removal of his threat, and establishing a stable Iraqi popular control of the country). It was part of what we went in there to do, and its success or failure is part of the full measure of success or failure of our entire operation.

Yet on this important story, our media blew it. Who can name a single contractor who did work in Iraq, besides the one that begins with "H" and maybe Blackwater USA? How many people can describe accurately the relationship between Halliburton and KBR? How many faces of Iraq contractors did you ever see in the news, except the ones who got kidnapped and beheaded? How many were the subject of news stories, or were quoted in any of them?

How does this whole process even work? When you say "contractor," probably the image that comes to mind is the guy you hire to replace your back porch or lay a new sidewalk. Is it like that -- he writes you a bid, you sign it, he works, you pay him?

I'm not trying to make anyone feel stupid: I had only the vaguest notion of these answers until I had a chance to catch up with Kat. And I'm an editor in the media and I've been watching the stream of reportage flow across the transom for three years now.

CONTRACTORS

Reporters in Iraq just don't do such stories. Only business reporters have the ability to write them, and apparently none of the big news agencies and networks thought to send any to Iraq. Even then, the contractor story could be explained only in long blocks of gray text. And there would be no evil corporations or jihadis or subpoenas or beheadings or conniving vice presidents in it.

"To the press," Kat wrote, "we might as well have been selling lemonade on little stands in front of our parents' houses." So here's her description, in answer to my questions, of her company's duties:

Without going into too much detail, those basically consist of providing added oversight and a separate control structure between governments and contractors. We act as a semi-autonomous break between the contractors and the governments who hire them. We often are contracted to provide oversight for critical phases of projects. If you aren't involved in a specific range of work, you'd not even know of us.
Unlike regular auditing firms, we have people on the ground full time with detailed knowledge of the contracts, including the structural and material requirements, the scheduling, and the payment process. We can review these against ongoing job conditions as well as the resulting expenses being reported, and we can provide recommendations where problems arise.

We are hired to help accomplish three specific tasks. First, to assure the quality of the projects being performed. Second, to reduce the possibility of waste or corruption through a critical review process of the actual product compared to contract requirements and submitted invoices. Third, to reduce the need for additional legal expenditures to contractors and completion expenditures for the government.

In other words, we exist for the sole purpose of assuring product quality and fair costs for governments, while at the same time providing additional sureity to the businesses who contract with them. The fact that our company, and at least three others like it, was so heavily involved in Iraq reflects the commitment of the parties who hired us to do these jobs properly at the most reasonable costs.

IN IRAQ

Our company had 28 contracts providing engineering and managerial review and oversight for more than 100 section projects. Within these were more than 200 individual contracts and subcontracts directly reported to three US agencies, the hundreds of contractors and subcontractors themselves, and four semi-autonomous agencies of the Iraqi government.

These contractual obligations were flexible, meaning they allowed for major changes in reporting obligations as the political situation evolved. This basically meant that as tasks originally contracted and managed by the provisional government were passed on to the interim Iraqi government, contracts could be altered to suit the structural government status the Iraqis arrived at. As a result, the method and means of fulfilling our obligations to these parties could change at midpoint in any given project or set of projects.

Our very small company had to expand considerably and completely change its business structure twice during the course of our work in Iraq. Conditions on the ground with supplies and security created scheduling problems on a number of jobs that left our company workload too broad and difficult to handle without additional personnel and equipment. These difficulties were shared by other contractors and the government, which increased our internal costs considerably.

HER JOB

I managed the hub. What started for me as a Girl-Friday job in the U.S. making travel arrangements and applying a few reports to contracts and data sheets with chat help from my boss turned into being the managerial hub in a foreign country, responsible for the schedules of two bosses, the engineers who worked under them, and the legal and accounting facilities we had expand back in the USA. I had been in college when I started, finished with a management degree in the medical field, and found myself in Iraq working between structural and civil engineers, government agencies and the legal and accounting sections back home.

If this is giving you a headache, you're not alone. It is impossible for me to express the strain of the workload taken on by my company and the many contractors and government agents we reported to. Factor in supply difficulties found in any large-scale job, add to that the fact that they were being performed in a war-torn country poor on finished resources, then add ongoing security problems to top it off, and you've got a work load of breath-taking proportions.
The contractors and government agency employees also often confronted major changes in requirements or massive amounts of recorded information they had no familiarity with whatsoever. It wasn�t any easier for them than it was for us.

Kinda dry? Maybe, if you don't really read business sections. Kinda important? Yes, if you want to have the faintest notion of "what we're doing in Iraq" and how well we're doing it. But the media were too busy being freelance statesmen and Roman censors and unelected fourth branches of the government. Too busy to do the dull job of reporting. Kat also wanted to make something very clear, for the sake of the people who did the work over there in your name, and for the sake of the soldiers and marines who protected them, and for the sake of the Iraqis who cast their lots for freedom and independence. And for the sake of the rest of us, that we just might catch on and wake up about certain things.

I know that in comparative numbers there really won't be enough of us coming back from Iraq to confront or challenge the MSM. Even if we all gathered together in Washington for a week to bitch and moan about it, we still couldn't assure that we were covered. We know you'll never know what we did. So what many of us are left with is a really nasty taste in our mouths. It's hurt me almost as much to be telling this as it has been to live through it, and I know I'm not alone in my feelings. I feel so very sorry for and protective of the soldiers and marines who protected me. They�re all my little brothers now, and I feel the same towards the inexperienced Iraqi soldiers who put themselves in harm's way for me.

OK, but what about that other company? The one that begins with "H"?

HALLIBURTON
There are probably only three to maybe five companies in the world with the types of expertise and experience necessary to take up this type of work. The scope of Halliburton's work in Iraq was far more extensive than the US government could readily oversee on its own. It would be monetarily impractical if not physically impossible for the government to plan and put into place overnight the kind of business structure Halliburton has taken years to build.

Our government can be more efficient than people usually prefer to believe. But in my opinion, even if it could put the people and the structure into place, the chances of it being able to run smoothly, be cost effective, and provide the flexibility required in Iraq would would have been slim. In this case, size and experience really did count.

Halliburton was only one of our clients of several hundred. Working with Halliburton directly on all projects would have been more simple than what was actually done. But you have to keep in mind the unique situation in Iraq. These contracting jobs were carrying political weight and the baggage that brings. Simply stated, some contractors who would otherwise not be qualified to perform work for Halliburton or another company inside of the US were politically needed to fill posts and help quell world complaints about US profiteering.

Remember that in the beginning, many people around the world believed the project would be a giant cash cow. International contractors also believed that breaking into the rebuilding scene in Iraq would open doors for them for other work in the future. As such, it was politically necessary for the US to promote the use of local and third nation country contractors.
As much mayhem as this caused, by and large the contractors and their subs still performed their jobs well under difficult business and security situations.

She's been a long-time follower of the media, and while she was in Iraq, or working from Turkey or Europe, she was able to see the range of news coverage that was reaching the rest of the world from where she was.

In the U.S., because of the nature of the news business, chances are you only see a story about, say, Lithuania, if something goes catastrophically wrong there. A plane crashes, people die, an epidemic breaks out, whatever. Most of us realize it doesn't mean Lithuania is a land of perpetual tragedy. We understand there is probably pretty much like here on most days, with nothing big to report.

But Iraq in 2006 is not Lithuania or Nepal or Argentina. Its condition and progress are essential features of our national political landscape. Its future is bound up with ours. We need to know more about it than we've been told, and the media is more than a passive observer. The Lithuania rules shouldn't apply in Iraq. But they did.

LEGACY MEDIA
I need to say, I have a lot of anger here, and I apologize for that. Unfortunately I think you�re going to see a lot more of it in the future from others, especially if this war continues to be played more like a political football game than a real war within the press and much of the government. There�s a lot at stake, from the kids like my little brother that we have fighting it, through the people who have tried to rebuild Iraq, to the long-term futures of several nations.

It�s just not as trivial as it continues to be presented, on any level. Some in the media tend to believe the Iraq story can only be related through scenes of blood. They are still trying to find the monks burning, or the naked children running along the roads of Viet Nam. But there is much more to this war than that, and now, just as then, they simply miss the big picture.

From what I saw, much of the media is simply lazy, and most of it is more concerned with money and personal politics than in delivering a good product with honesty. This is an opinion, and is a nasty, crappy thing to say to people who spend countless hours busting their asses in a tearing rush to deliver basic news to people. But understand, I'm not addressing that comment to the rank and file whose job it is to take what is available and deliver it to the masses. I'm speaking to those who decide what news to actually cover, and to those who actually provide the coverage.

As Cal pointed out to me in a personal discussion, there are some in the US who have chosen to shift their positions and I am watching as politicians and those who wish to always be part of the popular voice have twisted themselve in knots in order to assure themselves a bit of additional power or preserve their political dignity.

They will deny that US households typically take their news from only one or two sources. They will deny that most US households only know the name of one mother who lost a son in Iraq. They will deny that there is any effect in not hearing from other mothers with differing opinions. They will deny that almost no one in the US can name a single hero in Iraq or Afghanistan. They will deny there would be anything to be gained in hearing from our troops on a daily basis. They will deny anything has been lost by a public that never hears any news of the individual or group bravery of our military men and women, or the thousands of civilians in Iraq whom they protect.

They will deny that the media has played any negative part in US and coalition efforts in Iraq. But I will disagree with them completely. Instead, I would say that like any situation where a one-sided view was presented, the resulting public response has been totally predictable from the beginning.

The MEDIA in IRAQ

Beyond a couple of poorly received White House briefings that went all but completely ignored, I never saw a thing mentioned about the massive reconstruction projects underway in Iraq. There were no fact-filled and hard-hitting stories on those jobs. By and large, the US and European publics are completely clueless about the rebuilding process and the complexities that have been involved in it. Because the press ignored it completely.

Instead they waited like vultures for the first monetary discrepancies to hit, under Halliburton of course. Because of Dick Cheney, it�s what everybody on the left was wanting to hear, and nothing else mattered. The press lept on that with full claws fully extended, never paying a moment�s notice to the realities of large-scale construction projects.

Never mind that my company has worked for Halliburton before, and never mind that one of the primary reasons we have worked for that company and others is to find those types of discrepancies and work with the government and the companies to resolve them. Never mind that those issues were in their preliminary stage, and let�s never take note of the fact that they�re no longer news because the systems in place worked exactly as they�re supposed to work.

Within weeks of my arrival in Iraq, I knew exactly what would happen to US public opinion if media coverage continued as it was at the time.

Those of us working there saw no reason it had to be that way. For all of the difficulties, we were accomplishing monumental tasks that were truly worth noting. But where our work was concerned we were treated with even less interest than the press gives to similar jobs in the US or Europe.

The press missed something vital about Iraq, and as a result the American and world public never really understood. Nobody ever got it. Iraq wasn�t just another city in the US or in Europe.

And as a result US and European citizens can share no connection to and no pride whatsoever in what those of us in Iraq have accomplished. You can�t feel it, because you�ve never seen it. And those of us who have experienced it have few ways to convey it to you so you can relate to it and share it with us. There�s a pretty hollow feeling that comes with that. It�s like being a sixteen year old and winning a big talent contest, but your parents weren�t there to see.

GOOD NEWS, OR JUST NEWS

Halliburton and all its political ramifications aside, maybe the lack of other press coverage is because the details of these jobs were a little too confusing and boring to assure great headlines. (I get paid to work through all that confusing and boring stuff; I admit, it can be pretty bland.) Fair enough.

But you at least might expect that when major project sections or complete projects were finished, the press might come out, give it a fair look, and send something back on what they saw. After all, those things at least produce pretty pictures and opportunities to mix and mingle with a few big shots and some of the little people. It�s a nice chance to get right down to the things that really are making day-to-day Iraq better.

Part of the irrigation systems we worked with was literally responsible for providing the restoration of thousands of square kilometers of marshlands in southern Iraq, which in turn has restored an ancient way of life to thousands of people. When that�s considered, you�d think it might be worth making a bit of a fuss about.

But that's not what happened. Instead, out of the more than 200 project completions and section completions we and government sources reported to the press, only two that I know of ever reached outside the country in the MSM, and those two were buried in a report about an increase in oil production. That's it. That�s the whole show. That's all of the reporting anyone ever got from four major irrigation systems, twelve major water supply systems, and twelve major oil and natural gas systems.

So just from my own company�s position, I can see more than 200 lost opportunities to cover some good news. The excuses for this were always the same. Nobody available, or questionable security in transit.

The BIG PICTURE

While we were working on those projects, I and my co-workers watched, were protected by, and were assisted by US, British, and Iraqi Army and Marine units. These were often also engaged in various smaller infrastructure projects as well as local order security details that on several occasions stretched them well beyond the normal duties expected of them.

For all the complexities and risks associated with our work, (I carried two calculators, satellite and computer equipment, and a ridiculously heavy AKSU-74 submachine gun around with me most of the time) it was impossible for us to miss seeing what coalition and Iraqi forces were dealing with. Let me please emphasize that. If we simply woke up in the morning, walked outside and did our jobs, it was completely impossible to miss the profound efforts and accomplishments of coalition and Iraqi forces in securing and rebuilding the national infrastructure.

But it wasn't impossible for the western press to miss. In fact, as I think about it, it's quite possible they've actually missed the whole war. Unless reporting can be described as burying oneself in a few relatively safe places with others of one's own kind, they have missed far more than they have covered. It is difficult for myself and many others to have respect for western journalists in Iraq because they so very rarely committed themselves to actually going out and covering what was going on.

Most of us took our risks because we had to to complete our jobs. Others did so because we sincerely believed in what we were doing. For many if not most, we ultimately did so for both reasons. So it is difficult for us to watch or read much of what is reported here in the States. It is even harder to watch that same media mention their own "bravery and dedication" on those rare occasions when reporters would actually leave the safety of their burrows and venture out in clean flak jackets to cover some well-secured scene.

This didn�t go completely unnoticed by others who mentioned it on returning to the States. The media�s excuse has been that they are prime targets for armed thugs that routinely look for westerners to kidnap or kill. These people do exist and they are truly deadly. But far more contractors or Iraqi and third-nation workers employed by them have been killed, wounded, kidnapped, or raped, than journalists.

More international aid workers have been killed, wounded, or kidnapped, than journalists. More Iraqi doctors, police, government workers, social aid workers, teachers, government leaders, lawyers, businessmen and religious leaders have been individually targeted, killed, wounded, raped, or kidnapped than journalists. So as it works out, journalists aren't as high up on the hit list as they claim to be. But that hasn't moved them to go out and actually do their jobs, nor has it stopped them from trumpeting their own bravery, dedication, and ... uhhh ... integrity.

And so nothing will change. The press can simply sit and make excuses and the foundation of a good portion of those excuses will be that the rest of us who have taken the risks are simply foolish.

SECURITY

I don�t want to paint a rosy picture about security. I was relocated on three different occasions just to move myself and our office further away from violence that would flare up. There were even times when my bosses forbade me to travel under the threat of losing my job or relocating me out of country. While traveling I sometimes worried and was often simply scared. Even being well armed, I had seen enough of the tactics used by insurgents to know that if anything happened, neither of us would likely have the opportunity to do anything before being shot dead or worse.

Other aid workers, contractors, and yes, members of the military often faced similar situations or worse. Yet the fact remains, almost all of us did our jobs regardless of our situation. And in the case of Iraqis, many lined up waiting for the opportunity to get those jobs even while others who came before them sometimes died.

Of those people, few ever got any kudos or acknowledgment from the press. The press virtually ignores most members of the military and I cannot recall ever seeing detailed interviews with aid workers or contractors involved in rebuilding. I simply can't recall the press singling out by groups or individuals the people who have slowly been trying to put a new Iraq together. I�m sure I missed something at some time. But for an interested party looking for it, the fact that I and so many others missed it says a lot.

Instead, we have been rewarded with many opportunities to watch the MSM congratulate itself on its outstanding job performance. It has been particularly interesting to watch as press members critiqued their own performances, with all of them sincerely questioning if they�ve indeed covered the war in a balanced and fair way. Their verdicts have been predictable, of course, and always raised a good hollow laugh from the rest of us who long ago realized that we�d never have the power to say otherwise.

It's difficult to accept feeling lied about when you are unable to do anything to correct it. It's hard to feel unappreciated and unvalued when you have lost much while accomplishing sincerely worthwhile goals. But most of all, it is hard to accept profane vanity raising itself into the spotlight as it shuns the sweat, the courage and the lost lives of the more deserving. It makes you feel disrespected at a very deep level.
The size and complexity of the work being undertaken in Iraq was something not seen since the post-World War Two rebuilding of Europe and Japan. In truth, given the time frame available, the coalition bit off far more than it could chew, and ultimately it was forced to reduce its efforts. But that didn�t halt the most important projects from being completed or continuing to this day.

The Series

Part 1: You'll Never Know What We Did"
Part 2: "I Learned to Handle Myself..."
Part 3: "I Wasn't Chasing Blood"

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""You'll Never Know What We Did""

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Comments

#1 from rocketsbrain at 6:49 am on Sep 13, 2006

The MSM's daily Boom Boom Reports

Fantastic post. I'm linking to it as soon as I dash off this comment.

This is what the American people need to hear. I'm getting very tired of the daily boom boom reports by the MSM from their hotels.

In fact if it wasn't for all the media on the ground in Baghdad, I think the suicide bombing would deminish. With the concentration of cameras in Baghdad where else are you going to get more bang for your buck

RBT

#2 from Davod at 9:22 am on Sep 13, 2006

The backlash in the US to the lack of reporting may be a factor in years to come. Each soldier and contractor has friends and family.

#3 from coldoc at 9:30 am on Sep 13, 2006

Outstanding Post! This article hit right at that uncomfortable feeling I have been having about all the news out of Iraq... even from "friendly" sources like FOX.

I would like permission to forward this article to my Congress Critters here in Texas. All are "good" Republicans so I think it will be noticed. I have seen things like this get mentioned in their debates on the floor. I really think they should at least be aware & is worth a shot.

Anyone else care to join in the effort to make Congress aware?

#4 from Daniel Markham at 12:49 pm on Sep 13, 2006

This was a good piece. Thank you for putting it together.

As a friendly critique, in my very limited experience in news writing, complaining that "somebody should write a story about this" doesn't do a lot of good. The press wants eyeballs. Blood and guts are an easy way to get eyeballs without doing a lot of work.

If you're doing some complicated activity, one that might require the press to take time to do some analysis, interview a dozen of so folks, and risk their butts by leaving the green zone -- it just ain't going to happen. That's reality. The same thing happens over in the states with various kinds of stories that are harder to cover. Somebody will spend hundreds of hours if, at the end, it shows Dick Cheney holding up a liquor store. But for pictures of happy Iraqis? Nope. Not newsworthy enough.

The answer to that situation, at least over here, is for organizations to pre-package the news for the press. That's what Hezbollah was doing in Lebanon -- they stage the scene, they frame the story, and then they pick up the press and take them on a little road trip for the day. Nothing too long or difficult, and there are plenty of bleeding and angry victims to interview and photograph.

I imagine, oddly enough, that some of the higher-level leaders over in Iraq don't want coverage of reconstruction. Elevating projects as examples of success could put them on the terrorists' target list. I've heard that before, BTW.

Packaging the story, making it fit into the mission, and leveraging the press are critical parts of this war. Instead we get IW (Information Warfare) and PsyOps. Unsat. Completely unsat.

#5 from Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) at 1:11 pm on Sep 13, 2006

But it wasn't impossible for the western press to miss. In fact, as I think about it, it's quite possible they've actually missed the whole war. ... It has been particularly interesting to watch as press members critiqued their own performances, with all of them sincerely questioning if they�ve indeed covered the war in a balanced and fair way. Their verdicts have been predictable, of course

All they ever covered was their "story-line." Which was: a) America is the problem b) we never should have been there in the first place c) our soldiers and Marines are just as brutal as the enemy, or even worse d) we destroyed the place e) Iraq is falling apart etcetera ad nauseum.

The really discouraging news is that it's every bit as bad across the board. Science and technology coverage is abysmally poor and often just plain wrong. Economic coverage is essentially hopeless. Agriculture ... same thing. Mining and petroleum ... same thing. Latin American guerrilla groups ... ditto.

In every single area where I have practical expertise and/or degrees they get it wrong again and again, so what you've posted about Iraq is no surprise.

For more than a generation the vast majority of people heading into journalism have done so "to make a difference." Which is to say, they have an agenda from the outset. The results are predictable.

Look at network news. Look at newspapers. Decadent, failing travesties of reporting, with viewers and subscribers headed steadily south. Once the over-60 set has more or less passed off astern their influence will wane even more rapidly.

As my grandfather -- a diplomat and a colonel in military intel -- once said "Most of what you see in the paper won't make the history books ... and most of what you'll read as history will never make the papers."

#6 from Callimachus at 9:27 pm on Sep 13, 2006

(Kat wishes to append this)

So if I have this forum I can't speak for anyone else, but I can speak for myself and I want to make sure I give the respect that I know from experience is due. I want to take this one opportunity to give my most sincere shout-outs to the people who mean everything to me.

I say to all the military men and women who were around for me and who serve now with my little bro, thank you for being there for me and protecting me, every time and all the time. Thank you for everything. If you don't read this, you'll never know you were my heroes, so I hope you can. I felt safe with you near, and I prayed very hard when things were violent and you were fighting. If I could hug all of you I would.

I'd also like to thank those Iraqi men who have been so brave to take up the defense of their country in very difficult times. I know this has been a difficult and often deadly time. I know what you face with danger, and I know what you face for yourselves and your families. You've ridden with me on dangerous roads and stood in my defense in dangerous places. And yes, I know you have been scared at times and bored at times just like I was. But I want you to know, I love you and I promise I will never forget you. I hope someday they call all of you heroes of Iraq, and you're old and happy with your grandchildren beside you to hear it.

Last I'd like to shout out my thanks and appreciation for all of the work and effort and sheer courage shown to me by the contractors, the government workers, and day-to-day civilians who dedicated themselves to their jobs and to the future of Iraq. We know there's a lot of fighting left to do, along with it a lot of pain. It's hard to know what the future holds, but you and I will always know you put your faith and efforts up to a good fight and didn't back down.

No matter what happens, I know what all of you have done. You weren't just sensations. And you weren't just photo ops. You're real people doing things few others will ever know or understand or dare to do. I have seen you so patient when things were intense. I have seen you so brave when there was no choice but to fight. I have watched you pick up your dead. I have seen you deliver pieces and parts at the most critical moments from nobody knows where. I have seen your families cry, and I have seen all of you so happy and hopeful. I have seen these things from you, and I am so thankful that all of you exist.

We all need a little more luck. We all need a little more courage. We all need a little more strength. I can say I found mine in all of you, every day, and I'll always remember that.

Love always,
Katrina

#7 from AMac at 2:02 am on Sep 14, 2006

One example sticks in my mind of a first-rate piece of reporting on reconstruction in Iraq. It's by Glenn Zorpette and was published in February 2006 in IEEE Spectrum. Yeah, not a rag on my daily must-read list either.

It's a long, detailed piece, and it talks as much about what's gone wrong as about what's gone right. But I think Katrina would like it, as one instance where a reporter more than earned his pay.

Re-Engineering Iraq.

#8 from William at 6:57 am on Sep 14, 2006

There are people, who ignore the Drive-by media and only get there, news about Iraq from blogs. I am one of them. The Drive-by media is not to be trusted.

Thank you, to Katrina and all the men and women working and serving in Iraq, for your service to your country and to humanity!

#9 from Sunguh at 11:45 am on Sep 14, 2006

Great piece. Also like to add that there were good media personnel, but like Kat says, for every good one there were approximately 50 sh*t ones. Most of them in the IZ chasing mortar rounds and checkpoint bombings. When I moved out to the 'scenic countryside' where more was going on, they were nowhere to be seen. Unless it was one of the embeds, like Michael Fumento in my neighborhood, or someone similar to that.

IMHO, absolutely atrocious media coverage. I could tell more and more stories but it'd make me sick.

#10 from Kat at 5:29 pm on Sep 14, 2006

I'd like to thank you all for reading the post. Cal is a long time friend and has been prying on me to say things for a long time. It wasn't easy, and I owe him so much for making my ramblings make sense.

I really have to thank AMac for bringing this article to my attention. I did read it, and it's excellent. The sidebars are also important, and I'd love to see it put linked to in as many places as possible. It's specialized towards the electrical services in Iraq, but it's very informative on the types of difficulties being faced by the governments involved and all of the contractors.

Bart, your ideas are (unfortunately) as good as they come. I'm afraid most of us in the US are either unaware of our media situation, or haven't learned how to deal with the situation as well as our enemies have. Maybe you should write up a "distribution" memo for companies wishing to gain access to the media. With enough pyrotechnics, blood, and blondes...

Sunguh, you seemed like maybe you are army or direct services. And I do know that there were some reporters who truly wanted to do a good job. But I also know about the "make me sick" part. So if you have something you'd like to say, maybe you'd consider emailing Cal or me. He can be reached through the link, I think, and for a while I can be reached through Katspinner@yahoo.com. I really feel like it's time to start telling a few things.

Thank you to everybody else for your support and comments. Anything you can do to spread knowledge or provide support for our efforts is incredibly appreciated.

#11 from Tom Volckhausen at 6:53 pm on Sep 14, 2006

The rest of the story. Maybe in the conservative universe war profiteering is All Good...
MoreMillionsForTheExecutiveSuite, I wonder if they vote Republican?

"Blatantly Boasting War Profiteers
By Sarah Anderson, AlterNet. Posted August 30, 2006.
Profiteering execs don't usually brag about their windfalls from the 'war on terror' -- unless they're talking to potential investors. In their glossy annual reports, military contractors are typically modest about how much loot they've gotten from a bloody and increasingly unpopular "War on Terror." But read the transcript of virtually any Q&A session with Wall Street and the truth comes out. While millions are suffering from the human and economic costs of the Iraq war, the violence has been very good for the bottom lines of military contractors and their top executives.
"Obviously, military was a big bang for us in the post-September 11 period," crowed George David, CEO of United Technologies, in a meeting with analysts last December. UTC makes Black Hawk helicopters and fighter jet engines, along with civilian aircraft and elevators. David went on to boast that UTC had beaten all its competitors because the military side of its business had more than made up for a 25 percent drop in commercial aerospace revenues.

Not surprisingly, David's personal rewards haven't been too shabby either. Since 9/11, he has been by far the highest paid defense executive, hauling in a total of more than $200 million. David and other top defense executives are highlighted in a new report, "Executive Excess," by the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy (PDF).

So confident is Mr. David of continued military largesse that he's biting the hand that feeds him. In a lawsuit that is the first of its kind, UTC is suing the Pentagon to block the public release of documents related to alleged quality control problems in its Black Hawk factories. The Bush administration, not exactly known for its openness, had agreed to make the documents public in response to a journalist's Freedom of Information Act request....
"Obviously, we got a pop during the Iraq and Afghani thing," CEO Gerald Potthoff of Engineered Support Systems International candidly if indelicately told an investment publication last year. A big pop indeed. A series of war-related contracts for logistical services, some awarded on a no-bid basis, drove company earnings to record levels and set up executives for a lucrative sale of the company to another defense contractor, DRS Technologies, earlier this year.

Among the beneficiaries of that sale: President George W. Bush's uncle, William H. T. Bush, an ESSI director, who cleared $2.7 million in cash and stock. Known to the president as "Uncle Bucky," he claims he had nothing to do with the company's landing lucrative defense contracts.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is now investigating whether company officials went even further to jack up their war windfalls by manipulating the value of their stock options. In 2004, Potthoff's pay, including options gains, came to nearly $40 million.
Casualties = $$
Investors shouldn't trouble their little heads over the possibility of a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, Health Net CEO Jay Gellert said in a conference call, since the military's own medical capacity will be stretched "into the foreseeable future" by the huge number of injured troops. That's reassuring for Health Net, which, thanks to Pentagon outsourcing, provides managed care services to as many as three million persons in the military and their families.
Another company spokesperson boasted of how war-time stress has turned its mental health services into a "fast-growing business."
The military's booming health care needs have sent CEO Gellert's personal fortunes soaring. He took home a total of more than $28 million during the past four years, compared to only $2.3 million during the four preceding years. That 1,134 percent increase is the biggest enjoyed by any defense executive.
Upbeat reports such as these have helped make Wall Street bullish on defense. The IPS/UFE study found that the top 34 military contractors had a 48 percent increase in their share prices between the end of 2000 and the end of 2005. By contrast, the S&P 500 dropped 5 percent during that period.
These stock gains have translated into big paydays for defense industry executives. The top 34 enjoyed a doubling of their compensation during the four years after 9/11.
During times of war, there are even stronger arguments for pay restraint. For years, experts like management guru Peter Drucker have been advising against morale-killing pay gaps within companies. Imagine how it must feel to be risking your life every day on the front lines in Iraq, knowing that military contractors are getting grotesquely rich in the comfort of their executive suites? No wonder we're seeing the U.S. Marine Corps having to force their reservists back to the battlefield.

#12 from Kat at 11:05 pm on Sep 14, 2006

Well, Tom, you do raise an issue, sort of. In theory at least, it was good business to be there. Common sense would tell pretty much anybody with brain matter that you don't pack up your business and leave for another country unless you're pretty sure it will pay to do it.

But, I know, the argument is that American companies loved this war because it made all of us war-mongers rich. It's got to be a fact. It's got to be a fact that if you work in the defense industry, you've got to just pray for war. And as the article you posted notes, war means bodies. Thus, I'm led to believe you believe we all pray for lots of dying.

I hope that's not what you're saying, because if you were, it would be a very presumptuous and totally mean thing to say,

I'd like to mention a few worldwide business economics realities that your idealism may have overlooked.

In my post, the contractors I'm speaking of are REBUILDING Iraq. On TV, we're the boring ones. With us, things go really slow and nothing blows up.

We're engineers, builders, and all of the support structures they require with expertise in BUILDING things, not blowing them up. We come from all over the globe, not just from the USA, and the vast majority of employees we are speaking of are actually Iraqi. Where religious and political extremism has been kept to a minimum, few peer nations that can show competitive rates of growth like Iraq has.

The enthusiasm is catching, but you really have to be either on the ground or interested enough to research it to learn about that. And that's the purpose of my post. It's why you're in the dark about us, and it's why the Kurds have to pay for their own TV spots in the US, just to thank us for their freedom. It's why you believe that a slanted far-left article on profitable defense industry companies in the US is the whole picture in Iraq.

And I think it's not your fault. I think it's just because it's all you've been shown or taught or told.

So as far as it being the "other side of the story" you've already missed the point of the post and the subject matter presented there, so your "other side" isn't anything but a side sitting all by itself. And I'm being truly kind, but that's just my nature, so don't be asking me for a date just cuz of that.

If you're in a war, somebody has to keep troops fed and equipped. You ever try doing your job without equipment or food? Over there, sometimes they do, and that sucks. The struggle to prevent that sometimes means you have to go outside the normal and well-established lines we live with in the USA. That costs money, and yes, because the people filling those needs actually have families and need to eat each day, profit is involved. You ever try doing your job with no profit? It's not fun, but I've done it.

Your argument misses something else that's pretty essential. If this is "profiteering," as you label it, then it's open season for you to jump right into the game, and you can do so without a single bullet being aimed at you. For companies such as the example mentioned in your article, anyone can share in from just about anywhere on the globe. Those companies, unlike mine and so many others there, are listed on the stock market. And like every other evil corporation, they need investors to expand, and profits to attract investors.

I'm very proud to have some money invested in Curtiss-Wright, for instance. They design loading systems for the Stryker vehicles that I was pretty happy to see around when they arrived. Here's a happy notion for you, though. I actually invested in them because they're also involved in refurbishing 30-year-old Cobra helicopters for not only our Marines, but the armed services of several other countries.

I care because that old helicopter has saved a lot of lives for years. It's managed to accumulate a better service record that the much more expensive Apache we spent billions to replace it with. And I hope it keeps doing it, at the same reduced cost to US taxpayers that companies like Curtiss-Wright are achieving.

And you can invest in that, Tom. You can actually do some research and go down and invest your money in a company like that and maybe if you get lucky, you'll make a little money. That's what I do. I'm a democrat and a social liberal but I don't believe it has to make me an idiot financially, and I don't have moral issues with us or anyone else having an army that we actually use when we need it.

But here's something you can't share, Tom. You can't share with myself or the other contractors the heat of Iraq. You can't share flying down roads with people you can barely understand as they do things that would be totally unbelievable in the US. (And you should know, I ride at a track-competitive level on motorcycles back in the US, so I'm hard to impress) You can't share firing a totally obnoxious submachinegun for hours just so you could learn to protect yourself from people who wanted to kill you in any way they could. You can't share paying extra for your life and health insurance, you can't share missing your family for months on end because you have to, and you can't honestly say that you've ever truly hoped that the person sitting next to you that day in the office gets home okay, and mean it in a mortally real way.

It doesn't take a thing to find a fault, or a problem, or an excuse. But your news is actually not news to me, because I saw far more of the kind of "news" you presented while I was in Iraq than I saw of real, substantial, meaningful material. If that's what you're living on, then you're exactly the type of person I'm trying to reach. I don't care about your political persuasion or who you voted for. I don't care if you're ten, twenty-four, forty-one or sixty. I don't care if you're pro-life, gay-rights, Rush Limbaugh or alternate fuels. I just want you to have a real clue about what's really there, and not just a collection of political swipes, aka, bullshit.

That's all that most of us there are asking of you. Just to try to get out of that dim political world that you guys are so absorbed in, and soak up a little reality.

#13 from Robin Roberts at 3:49 am on Sep 15, 2006

Bravo, Kat. Your comments are wasted on Tom V., but I greatly appreciate your time here.

#14 from HA at 11:34 am on Sep 15, 2006

This post made me think of the US Marchant Marine. Few, besides the mariners, remember what they did:

1 in 26 mariners serving aboard merchant ships in World WW II died in the line of duty, suffering a greater percentage of war-related deaths than all other U.S. services. Casualties were kept secret during the War to keep information about their success from the enemy and to attract and keep mariners at sea.

http://www.usmm.org/ww2.html

It is probably better that today's contractors receive little publicity for their contribution. That would just make them bigger targets.

#15 from Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) at 1:09 pm on Sep 15, 2006

Headline from the Kansas City Star, 14 September:
"IRAQ'S GRIEF ONLY GROWS"
demonstrates my point about storylines (#5 above).

I doubt they asked the Marsh Arabs, or the towns with fresh water they never had before, or the kids in new schools, or the small businesses now flourishing across the country, or the villages which no longer have raw sewage in the gutters.

They certainly never asked over one million former exiles and refugees who've returned since 2003. When things are worsening the flow of refugees is all out-bound, not in-bound.

The Left's storyline is pure, unadulterated bull$#!+, and as usual the "talkers" can only criticise, condemn and complain ... whilst the "doers" actually get out there and make a difference.

Thanks to Kat and the thousands of folks who'll never make the front page of the KC Star or any other paper. I've done development work with a target on my back. I admire the whole lot of you.

#16 from Wayne at 10:59 am on Sep 22, 2006

I have spent my fair share of time in Iraq working on development projects. In general i am totally supportive of good news stories, and even wrote one for my home town paper. There is a lot being done by us, a whole lot more by brave Iraqis and little of it gets into main stream press.

But the problem is not the great Left wing media conspiracy and the answer isn't a great Right wing conspiracy. the truth, as often is the case, lies in between.

The cause of the poor coverage of siccesses is, as geraldo put it, "The press doesn't cover a house that isn't on fire". Doesn't matter if it's left, right or Martian, most news organizations are businesses and they write what people want to read about. As evidenced by our national love for inane 'Reality' shows, a whole lot of people like entertainment more than data, blood and gore more than little kids with fresh water. That's a fact of human life, not political bias.

As for our success, it is hard to do a job like this and not want to see the success. But I am just back from six weeks in Baghdad (Red Zone) and Erbil, and there is a whole lot of unpleasantness going on. Positive steps are met with equal amounts of corruption, intimidation, violence, etc. I see a brain drain of talented Iraqis leaving because they see no future for the next three to five years. Shops are closed up, neighborhoods controlled by militias (two miles from the IZ!).

I am just not sure anymore where we are, what drection we are going in. We keep putting our fingers in the dyke, trying to stop the leaks and more leaks spring up. I guess i remain fundamentally optimistic, but I will not expect to see sunshine stories anytime soon because a) people of all political stripes prefer gore and b) there ain't that much big sunshine.

I love our trops, our dedicated contractors and the Iraqi secretary who comes to work by a two hour route every day to support her whole damn family, whom she can't even tell she works for us or they themselves would turn her in. No question there are heroes aplenty in Iraq.

#17 from Kat at 7:06 am on Oct 02, 2006

Tom, I appreciate your comments, and more, I appreciate your work in Iraq. Outside of the green it's pretty much solid Iraq, and in the Baghdad area it's a difficult place to be. If you were working there like me, well, I'm glad you're here and I hope you didn't lose any of those you became close to.

I understand what you mean about progress, and even how you feel about the future and those who may be shaping it. We both know there are thugs in Iraq who respect little beyond power. More than one little man has risen to considerable power by means of hatred expressed through religion and sheer violence. It has nothing more to do with true Islam than Hitler and the brownshirts had to do with human kindness, and you and I both know it. There are dregs in every society, regardless of religion, and they will usually hide behind anything or use anything to get ahead.

I also understand your "finger in the dike" opinion. Indeed, there are too few of us, too few dollars, and at times, too many problems to solve at once. But I would remind you that Rome wasn't built in a day, and that the people working around you who you often can't even see, are accomplishing tasks of their own. So things are actually getting done somewhere, every minute of every hour.

I would also remind you that in Iraq, rebuilding isn't merely a problem of laying new roads or putting up buildings. Iraq requires rebuilding down to the human level of the infrastructure. You would have seen this for yourself, and you can probably testify to it in terms of effects on your work there. Decades of war, abuse, and neglect have all but ruined the managerial and highly skilled labor force of the country as a whole generation of workers have either been replaced by personel with nothing to work on or no parts to work with, or worse, not replaced at all.

But these issues are being addressed, both privately and with government funded programs. Skilled and intelligent people from around the globe have dedicated themselves to helping return these skills to Iraq in through many different ways. And Iraqis are generally hungry to learn, and to get back to work and be a part of a new Iraq. You've helped with this, even if you didn't realize it. The dedicated Iraqi secretary you spoke of has learned from you, as have my employees from myself, as have thousands of others who have worked with those of us from the west and east. Even more are being trained through US government efforts, and slowly but surely this is producing a more effective and streamlined Iraqi workforce and management.

There are thousands of US and third nation contractors, employees, and volunteers in Iraq at the moment. But as you know, the vast majority of those working on rebuilding projects are Iraqis. You must certainly know this has been intentional, because we won't be there forever. Iraqis must eventually be able to effectively run their own country. These efforts are paying off, even if they can be difficult to see right now. Every minute of every day, more and more Iraqis gain new opportunities for work or to rise up further in their jobs because they are gaining knowledge and experience. I admit, the pace is slow. It certainly takes less time to blow up a building than it does to actually build it. But the skills and experience being gained by the Iraqis involved in this building process will last forever. And at a certain point, simple pride begins to become a factor with Iraqis, not just in terms of the religious nationalism we're so used to seeing, but in their actual ability to manage themselves and accomplish something that makes all that pride really worth something.

This is what the people we are fighting fear the most. They don't want power on 24-7 in Baghdad. They don't want sewers to work or water to flow. They don't want to see an effective Iraqi army or a solid and honest police force. They don't want to see former marsh Arabs coming back onto their lands and working with western international groups to plan the future of their reclaimed lands. They don't want an open and secularistic Iraqi government that can effectively manage the nation to the benefit of all Iraqis. And above all, the don't want any of these things to happen while coalition forces are on Iraqi soil, and they certainly don't want it to be perceived that these western concepts have been beneficial for the future Iraq. Safety, success, and prosperity do not fit into insurgent ideals about Iraq if they cannot either take credit for it or gain power from it.

But our efforts are like a rolling snowball on a mountain in a snowstorm, because every Iraqi any of us train will eventually come to know their job and have pride in it. And the jobs they help create will pass on to others now waiting for one. So the secretary who now has to lie and hide what she does from her family or neighbors (yes, I know this scenario very well) will later be able to say what she is doing openly, because all those around her will either be starving or doing jobs such as she is doing.

It's rebuilding a true society, from the ground up, and that doesn't happen overnight. It certainly doesn't happen for a few bucks and some change, or without disagreements, violence and bloodshed. And it can't happen while you're discussing political science at Starbucks or hanging out at your dorm at Berkley or Vanderbilt. You've been in the real world scene where you have to pay as you go, and nobody can give you much security as you do it.

As far as the media goes, sit back for a moment and you do the math. What did you see written or shown about your projects in the MSM? For that matter, what did you see about any of the projects in the MSM? Go back and do some heavy online research about what's actually been contracted in Iraq, just from the USA. Check those projects out, then do some searches and see what you find written on them in the MSM. Think back and see if you remember any of them on the front page or even close.

Then, think back about how many stories you have read in your newspapers or seen on the major networks about the media's own coverage in Iraq. That is to say, how many stories has the media done on itself, regarding the quality of it's journalism during the course of the Iraqi war and rebuilding efforts.

Finally, think about how many times you see negatives in the press on Iraq, and how many burning houses you find on the front page. Attempt to balance the number of stories telling of the good works of coalition soldiers against the number of those telling of their mistakes. See how many times "good" news is immediately blended with an offsetting disclaimer. Read the news to understand, particularly the lead sentences of the articles you look at.

Wayne, I understand that the mainstream media is a business. I understand burning buildings and blood and sex are the things that sell. But think about it. Iraq is itself a burning building, has been one for decades, and we are a nation at war. If our accomplishments aren't bloody enough for the press, that's too bad. We build things, we don't shoot them or blow them up. We do boring and tedious work, by Al Quida standards. But to the insurgency who can do nothing more than kill and destroy, our ability to help Iraqis build a new and better country is our version of their suicide bomb, and to do our jobs, we've created a larger number of "martyrs" than they have. They can't raise themselves up to our level any more than we can sink down to theirs. And if that's not worth covering in a bitter fight to the finish, then I don't know what is.

I agree with you about one thing in particular-- when it comes to the media, the truth generally usually lies somewhere between the extremes. But you have to be aware of what the extremes are to know where to look, and to do that, you have to get both sides of the picture. Americans need to understand more than just the fact they are involved in a war. They need to see what their own side is accomplishing through American methods of fighting and winning. We see daily what the other side does using theirs. I believe some balance is important, otherwise we're fighting a war knowing our enemy much better than we know ourselves. When that happens, our enemies tend to look like giants.