What happens when the government gives no bid contracts with no oversight to a company closely associated with the Vice President? Yes, cronyism. Yes, corruption. But possibly worse than Republican cronyism and corruption are troops killed by the incompetance and callousness of a company that cares about nothing by profits.

As outlined in a Daily Kos diary, KBR, a branch of Halliburton, a company closely associated with Dick Cheney and favored heavily by the Republican Party for no-bid contracts with no oversight, has so bungled the maintenance of one of our Iraq bases that 12 of our troops have been electorcuted since 2004.

And this company has continued to get no bid contracts even though this problem was known. This is the worst kind of Republican corruption: sacrificing our troops for greed. That's goes even beyond the usual Republican war profiteering.

From a Houston Chronicle article:

At least a dozen soldiers and Marines have been electrocuted in Iraq over the five years of the war, and investigators now are trying to learn what role improper grounding of electrical wires played in those deaths.

And Houston-based KBR — which builds bases and maintains housing for U.S. troops in Iraq — is at the center of the probe, with questions being raised about its responsibility to repair known wiring problems.

On the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, California Democrat Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent a letter Wednesday to Defense Secretary Robert Gates seeking details about electrocutions of military and contract workers in Iraq and about KBR's role in making electrical repairs.

The ONLY reason this has come out is because the Democrats took over Congress and finally allowed some oversight, led by Democratic Congressman Waxman, of the Republican war profiteers. Had Democrats not taken control of Congress, this would still be covered up. Oh...and do you want to know to what extent the cover up went? It went all the way to lying to the mothers of dead soldiers:

The investigation was prompted by the death of Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, of Pennsylvania, who was electrocuted Jan. 2 while taking a shower in his living quarters in the Radwaniyah Palace Complex in Baghdad.

Initially, Maseth's mother, Cheryl Harris, was told her son — serving in the Army's Special Forces — had a small, electrical appliance with him in the shower...

Three weeks after her son's death, Harris sought help from her local congressman, Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa.

Maseth, according to a memorandum written by Army investigators and obtained by the Chronicle, was living in a building that had been refurbished by local Iraqis.

KBR had been contracted to provide maintenance on the building in 2007, the memo said.

Maseth was killed, the memo said, when an electrical water pump shorted out after he had stepped into the shower and turned on the water.

An electrical current then passed through the water pipes to a metal shower hose in the shower.

So...they LIED to his mother. The lied to the mother of a dead soldier to cover their tracks. And this was only discovered because a Democratic Congressman, Jason Altmire, D-Pa, investigated and is only coming out because another Democratic Congressman, Henry Waxman, D-Ca, has been doggedly pushing investigations of the mismanagement of this war.

Maseth's mother put it right:

"I'd like to know who was accountable and why Ryan was permitted to live in a facility that was life-threatening," his mother said.

That sums up this entire war: who was accountable and why has this mess been permitted to happen. I hope Democrats like Waxman can get to the bottom of this. But they need help. Progressive Democrats have to show the Greedy Old Party and the weaker Democrats what it really means to support the troops.

Support Diane Benson, mother of a wounded Iraq soldier, for Congress from Alaska. VoteVets.org founder, Jon Soltz, suggests that everyone should donate to Diane Benson's campaign before donating to any other campaign. I agree. Let's get a mother who KNOWS the cost of this war into Congress.

Speaking of Soltz and VoteVets.org, let's support VoteVets.org. We can continue the flood of Veterans entering Congress as Democrats.

Finally, support those Democrats, including my friend Steve Harrison, who have signed onto the Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq.