Frontline: Private Warriors

In "Private Warriors," FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith travels throughout Kuwait and Iraq to give viewers an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at companies like Kellogg, Brown & Root, a Halliburton subsidiary, and its civilian army. KBR has 50,000 employees in Iraq and Kuwait that run U.S. military supply lines and operate U.S. military bases. KBR is also the largest contractor in Iraq, providing the Army with $11.84 billion dollars in services since 2002.
Historically, there is nothing new about the military's use of private contractors, but the Iraq war has seen outsourcing on an unprecedented scale. The policy change came after the Cold War when the Pentagon was downsizing under then Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney. Cheney first hired Halliburton as a consultant and later became the company's president. Halliburton subsidiary KBR is now one of the largest recipients of government contracts.
FRONTLINE visits the biggest Halliburton/KBR run base, Camp Anaconda, in the Sunni triangle. Behind concrete walls 28,000 soldiers and 8,000 civilians live in bases that offer Taekwondo and Salsa lessons, movie theatres, fast food courts, and four meals a day. The amenities are impressive, but some argue that there is a price to pay. Says a former base commander Marine Colonel Thomas X. Hammes, "it's misguided luxury … somebody's risking their lives to deliver that luxury."
And while KBR was glad to provide Smith with a tour of the facilities, they weren't able or willing to answer some basic questions about how much certain services -- like feeding the troops -- cost.

Response from OpTruth.org:
Personally, I loved the part where the KBR mayor of Anaconda tries to convince the reporter that they don't know how much it costs to serve each meal per person. I found it just incredulous that he would even try to say that. And the press co-ordinator was equally amusing. I don't know what it is about catching someone in telling a whopper that makes it so interesting, but it just does! You bet that KBR knows exactly how much it costs per serving. They have to know the costs to make money. Yet when the reporter asked the actual mayor of Anaconda how much it cost per serving, he knew. About $20.00 per meal. To me, that amount is staggering. When I was in the Navy, they had the cost of a meal broken down to $8.35 per DAY.