Shotty Contractors Killing U.S. Soldiers In Iraq

There are many ways to die in war if you are a soldier but you would not expect one of those ways to be from being electricuted while trying to take a shower. Contractors in Iraq involved in providing services and facilities to the U.S. army have been cutting corners to such an extent that it is endangering the lives of soldiers. A july 11th U.S. senate inquiry has uncovered that contractors in Iraq such as Halliburton and K.B.R. (Kellogg, Brown, & Root) once they secure contracts from the United States government to build support facilites for U.S. forces often turn around and instead of hiring experienced, competent American contractors to build these facilities will hand over the work to inexperienced, shotty Iraqi workers who are not competent and the result is sometimes death for American soldiers. The Senate inquiry uncovered that since 2003 there have been 13 U.S. soldiers in Iraq who have been killed while taking showers because of poor and faulty electrical work. The shower facilities are usually hooked up to water heaters that run on electricity that are there to heat the water for showering. When this delicate electrical wiring is not done properly or competently the water can often come into contact with the electrical wiring and cause an electric shock which can kill. Many of the workers that Halliburton and K.B.R. hire to do this work are not only inexperienced and suspect but in many cases do not even speak english. The reason they do this is simply money. These "local Iraqi contractors" are willing to work for much less money than their skilled American counterparts and so by hiring them they save money on labor costs. The Senate inquiry has also revealed that in a six month period during the war there were a total of 283 incidents of electrical fires which damaged or destroyed U.S. facilities in Iraq.