by James Glaser
August 11, 2003

The heat, lack of electricity, and fuel shortages are causing the people of Basra, Iraq to lose their tempers and protest by throwing rocks at their British occupiers. Sunday one protester was killed and one "Security Guard."

In this case the security guard was not a British soldier or an American one. No, due to the lack of international support for occupying Iraq and not enough American military personal to do the job, a private army has been employed with our tax dollars. The Associated Press reports that the firm, "Global Security" has been hired to provide security and "other services" for coalition bases throughout Iraq.

Global Security is a private company that employs former military men and women from the armed forces of many nations. It was reported that the man killed this weekend was of Nepalese origin.

The United States Army and Marines, have if this report is true, a mercenary army protecting their bases. American General after General has told Congress that our troops are undermanned in Iraq. Now we find we are contracting to hire security forces to protect not only our troops, but the British too. I'm sure these "Professionals" don't come cheap and wonder who in Washington is making money off of these contracts.

To get back to the protests in Basra, one has to wonder what these Iraqi people are complaining about. After all Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, plus most of the White House staff have told America that the Iraqi people are getting more electrical power than they had under Saddam. Could this not be true?

British spokesman Charles Heatly said that in Baghdad coalition forces were taking steps to alleviate the power and fuel crisis in Basra. The Coalition also brought in two new gas generators to try and patch the antiquated electricity system.

This is August and the War according to President Bush was over on May 1st and now we decide to bring in new generators? We bombed Iraq's infrastructure to smithereens in the first Gulf War and stopped all repair parts from getting to that country until this new Gulf War and we now call their electrical grid antiquated. It is over a hundred degrees out every day in Iraq and people have no electricity.

Think about how hard that would be to live in, then think how hard that would be if you had a house full of kids. What a brilliant move it was to bring in new generators 90 days after President Bush declares the major fighting over.

Now try and tell the world we want to help the people of Iraq and that we are not there to punish them. Remember we spend over one thousand million dollars in that country each and ever week and after spending over twelve billion dollars, since Bush's speech, we pop for a couple of generators.

How many innocent Iraqis have died because we destroyed their public utilities liberating them? If American forces have been dying from heat stroke, with all of our medical facilities, how many Iraqi children and old people do you think have died from the same cause?

POST SCRIPT DEATHS IN IRAQ

The US Military said a 3rd Corps Support Command Soldier died of heat stroke while traveling in a convoy near the southern city of Diwaniyah on Saturday.

The Military Command also reported a soldier was found dead in his bed Saturday. The cause of death was not determined