Thursday, March 20, 2008

12 US Military Electrocutions: In Their Own Showers


Photo from source, ABC News
I'm double-dipping into ABC News stories tonight, because these stories--while clearly here in the mainstream media--are not getting enough attention. Here we have another of those pitfalls of privatization--the mantra of the new Right. How can it be that a company can be hired by our government to build facilities, and that those facilities can be so substandard that soldiers are being electrocuted in their showers? And twelve of them?

Top that off with the fact that the company in question is KBR, an off-shoot of Dick Cheney's Halliburton, and it's just that much worse. This is only the most recent in the Bush Administration's privatization policy scandals. Does anyone out there really think the Republicans should still be in charge?

[Excerpt]

Hidden Danger: Soldiers Dying From Electrocution

. . .little did the staff sergeant know that when he stepped into the shower at his military base in Baghdad two months ago, he was putting his life at risk.

Maseth, 24, of Shaler, Pa., outside Pittsburgh, was electrocuted on Jan. 2 when an improperly grounded electric water pump short-circuited and flowed through the pipes. Since the coiled hose was touching his arm, he was hit with an electrical jolt and went into cardiac arrest and died. . .

Read more at: ABC News

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