I recently
overheard a young man criticizing anti-war folks for opposing war
even though, “those people don't have the slightest clue what is
going on over there.”

Well, perhaps that's true. But I would venture to guess that if more people truly knew, not just the events that occur in Iraq, but the contexts of rampant corruption with no accountability surrounding these events, this would in fact embolden war critics' opposition to the current situation in Iraq.

With Progressive Future, I have been working to get the word out about the frequent and inexcusable abuse and corruption of private contractors hired by the government to outsource the war's dirty work. Every scandal that surfaces further emphasizes the need for the American public to cry out in protest against these atrocities going on in our name. Things like soldiers dying of electrocution due to contractors' faulty wiring, a brigade of mercenaries opening fire in a public square and killing innocent Iraqis, contractors forcing our troops to shower and brush their teeth with water contaminated with larvae, bacteria and sewage because they neglected to carry out the chlorinated decontamination process.

But thinking further on the young man's comment, I have to wonder about the lack of outcry. And, sure, isolated incidents that crop up regarding instances of contractor abuse get reported, but I think it has to do with the quality of the reporting that allows us to emotionally remove ourselves from a situation that should induce pure outrage.

Today, Robert Koehler posted a column on the Huffington Post that provided some revealing insight as to why the nature of the current news coverage displaces the shock and indignation that should be a natural reaction to these stories. It's all about the context. The mainstream media does not report on the latest KBR scandal as a problem endemic in the way the administration decided to treat the destruction in Iraq as an open market ripe for profiteering. These incidents are reported with as little historical context and human experience as possible:

“The Los Angeles Times, for instance, in its May 4 story about the investigation of the Nisoor Square massacre, doesn't trouble us with references to other Blackwater shooting sprees; much less the larger context of invasion, mission accomplished, and five years of occupation in which more than a million Iraqis have died; much less the ample testimony of returning vets that "the hadjis" of occupied Iraq are routinely belittled, mistreated and dehumanized. If it had done so, the massacre in question would suddenly be a piece in a far larger picture that would make almost all Americans recoil in shame.”

So when I met Rachel, a formerly deployed Iraq veteran who was a primary witness in the scandal surrounding KBR's provision of contaminated water to the troops, I realized that the only way for us Americans to get a glimpse of the corrupt and destructive context surrounding the war was to share her firsthand testimony.

In my interviews with her, Rachel was so insightful and forthcoming with the stories of what she saw in Iraq, I decided to share her experiences in the form of a five-part blog series, “Who's Supporting Our Troops?” which will be posted in segments on the Progressive Future blog from Monday through Friday of next week. These entries will provide actions to help you become involved in the outcry against these egregious practices. I hope you will tune in next week for this special series.