For a mere $1,300,000,000 per month, the military has been using private contractors to provide basic services like mail, laundry service, meal service, and housing.When Marine's Girl e-mailed her Marine about this, here was his reply:
. . .We are currently fielding 133,000 troops (targets?) in Iraq. In other words, Halliburton and its ilk, are being paid approximately $9,774 per soldier, per month.
"What mail? My unit isn't allowed to have that, we were allowed mail and packages on other missions but not since arriving in Iraq. As for laundry, we have been doing our own with a bar of Coast that an Army SGT's wife sent him, we traded Skittles for it. Food, we get hot chow line from the Army when we are in their camps. On the road as we most often are, we get on average 2 MRE's per day. That's where the Skittles come from. Candy from MRE's passes for currency here. Housing, we sleep on the ground next to the LAV unless we are lucky to get a cot in a tent from the Army when near a camp. I had two of my men get sick after purchasing water and food from Iraqis when we ran out while out while on a mission. That's why we are at an Army camp now, waiting for one of my men to recover enough for us to head out again. To be fair, we have had plenty of fuel for the LAV but have been consistantly shorted on food and water. Now tell me where that money is going?"
Why can't they get at least 3 MREs a day?
