Via Raw Story, a gripping “home video” by a Halliburton truck driver, Preston Wheeler, driving a truck in Anbar Province a year ago. The video was presented on ABC’s evening news show yesterday. We don’t watch a lot of Big Media commercial television because of professional issues; basically we don’t consider Big Media personalities to be “journalists”, with very few exceptions.. Perhaps some of you saw the show
The video is electric, as the driver reacts to the ambush with spontaneous language that will surely garner ABC a massive fine from the politicized Bu$hCo FCC.
From ABC’s The Blotter:
A dramatic home video obtained by ABC News shows U.S. troops apparently abandoned a truck convoy after it came under insurgent attack in Iraq last year.Three unarmed Halliburton truck drivers were executed at point-blank range once the troops left, according to a surviving driver, Preston Wheeler, of Mena, Ark., who taped the scene.
"They was murdered. To me, they was murdered," Wheeler told ABC News in an exclusive interview to be broadcast Wednesday on World News and Nightline.
So many lessons to be drawn from this: our troops’ vulnerability in Mr Bu$h’s ego-driven personal war and occupation – they have to be supplied by truck convoys on a daily basis through areas inhabited by a populace – Sunni and Shia - that hates Americans with a burning passion. We briefly discussed this vulnerability here and here.
The commentary from COL Pat Lang, US Army (Ret) is especially relevant here.
It’s interesting that the convoy commander didn’t stand and fight, as is expected according to the last word we heard on the subject in the April, 2006 article just above. Perhaps the rules have been changed again, and in an ambush civilian contractors are on their own and sauve qui peut is the rule. Or maybe the convoy commander, from the Virginia NG just couldn’t manage the battle well enough.
Once insurgents opened fire and disabled four trucks, the personnel carrier can be seen racing ahead."They left. They, I don't know where they went, they're nowhere to be seen," Wheeler said.
Wheeler says it was 45 minutes before a U.S. military force returned. By then, Wheeler says, he had seen two drivers shot at point-blank range. He identified them as Keven Dagit, of Jefferson, Iowa, and Sascha Greener-Case, of Sierra Vista, Ariz.
While we here at Main and Central have very little sympathy for armed contractors, i.e. mercenaries, who get killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, we do feel a sense of shame and loss when patriotic Americans, desperately in need of work, risk their lives for promised serious money.
A spokesperson for Halliburton declined to discuss the specifics of Wheeler's accusations and tape. The spokesperson says its employees sent to Iraq are fully informed of the risky nature of the assignment.Wheeler was hit by two AK-47 rounds and suffered serious damage to his right arm.
Two months after the ambush, Halliburton notified him he was fired, citing a "work-related" injury.
This is George Bu$h’s 21st century America. Workers inured on the job are kicked to the curb, since there is no further value in exploiting them.
Comments
I saw that video. Going down that narrow road between walls for miles was asking for it with that small an escort. They should have had Cobra flankers and a sizable infantry reaction force, with artillery on call.
Better yet, drive around that ambush trap. 100 miles around wouldn't have been far enough for me, but then I ain't gettin' the big bucks.
It actually brought back some very unhappy memories.
As you say, drive around obvious ambush zones.
I watched that video again and also saw an interview with Mr. Wheeler a few minutes ago. The convoy was on that road due to a 'map error'. I guess Halliburton doesn't vet maps or do a route recon. I say again, no recon. Unthinkable to me, but it was not a military convoy per se, rather a civilian convoy with a military escort with resources on call.
The military gun truck apparently did what it was supposed to do: clear the kill zone, then call for help, then do what it can for the personnel. Mr. Wheeler was rescued as a result of calling for help. The gun truck returned, I think, and laid down suppressing fire which must have helped him as well.
The Corps would have called in some air and levelled the joint.
It's inevitable that civilians are going to get killed since the military has outsourced logistics. Resupply for a paycheck is not going to have the same urgency as resupply from your comrades in arms.
Apparently Halliburton, KBR, whatever, has a pretty cavalier attitude about the whole deal. They get paid no matter what, whether the job gets done or not. Bastards.
That great sucking sound you hear is this administration's callous, incompetent, big business-oriented handling of this whole Iraq clusterfuck. They gotta pay somehow.
i'm even more pissed off than usual.
I saw in the film clip and story those things you brought up. I didn't include everything for several reasons, including the luxury of a readership that in the main actually has some military experience and therefore understands the subtle nuances of inadequate convoy force protection, bad map skillls, poor preparation (not knowing the route well enough to make the right turns,) bad tactical sense, (going back through the gauntlet a second time.) Ask the Air Force how many B-52d they lost in Nam by running the same strike package day after day.
Military drivers would have been armed, and each truck would have had a shotgun rider. Those two or three drivers might not have been killed.
While generalities are ALWAYS suspect, corporations are soulless and have loyalty only to the bottom line, and hence to the managers' next quarterly bonus.
Post a comment