William A. Alexander – 12/14/06

This page was last updated on December 17, 2006.

Oversight of war long overdue; William A. Alexander; Beaver County Times; December 14, 2006.

Mr. Alexander has written at least 19 letters since December 2004, and they all bashed Republicans for something.

Below is a detailed critique of the letter.

“The 10 people on the panel did not write the Iraq Study Group Report. Their aides and consultants wrote it.”

[RWC] What’s the point of this sentence? Regardless of whose fingers pounded the keyboard, isn’t the report content what the ISG intended?

“In addition to that, the panel was only in Iraq for four days, and of the 10 on the panel only former U.S. Sen. Charles Robb left our military fortress called the ‘Green Zone.’

“That fact alone speaks more about the conditions in Iraq than the 96-page report.”

[RWC] I’m no expert on Iraq, but I believe asserting the security situation in Baghdad represents the situation throughout Iraq is erroneous.

“Recently, it was shown that we have been paying $500,000 a year for a former small town policeman from the Midwest to guard supply trucks from Kuwait.”

[RWC] As a reminder, treat any “facts” cited by Mr. Alexander with suspicion. I don’t know that any of his “facts” in this letter are erroneous, but historically his letters have been fact challenged. Though a quick Google search didn’t find anything to support Mr. Alexander’s assertion, that doesn’t mean he was wrong. There’s no question contractors in Iraq get paid very well because of the danger.

“Now, we discover that there are as many contractor and subcontractor personnel in Iraq being paid by our government as there are military personnel.”

[RWC] The heavy use of civilian personnel has been a Pentagon strategy since at least the 1990s. For example, do we really need trained soldiers to run mess halls, mop floors, drive supply trucks, et cetera?

Who did Mr. Alexander think was rebuilding Iraq’s infrastructure? While the U.S. military is responsible for some of the construction projects, I believe civilians handle most of these projects.

“Since Halliburton is the biggest supplier of these subcontract workers (at about 50,000) and it is continually fighting claims of malfeasance whenever anyone reviews its paperwork, there is no telling how much we are being overcharged.”

[RWC] That’s why the Pentagon has an accounting/auditing office. To date, all alleged the companies themselves and/or the Pentagon caught/reported overcharges. Will Jason Altmire and Bob Casey, Jr., review contracts, purchase orders, and invoices personally?

Halliburton? Wow, that’s twice in two days a lefty mentioned Halliburton. Perhaps Messrs. Alexander and Finch work from the same talking points memo. <g>

“It is unbelievable that these contractors and their employees are making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year while our men and women in the military are risking their lives protecting them or doing the same jobs for military pay.”

[RWC] The contractors are also “risking their lives.” Also, some of the contractors provide security for U.S. interests in Iraq, so many of them are directly in harm’s way just as our military. I’ve also read the vast majority of civilian security personnel are former members of the U.S. military.

What’s Mr. Alexander’s solution? Does he advocate not doing the work, or does he advocate building up the military to function as both a military and a worldwide construction company? When we aren’t at war, what would Mr. Alexander do with his military construction company?

“Hopefully with the new Congress there will be some oversight of this arrogant and incompetent executive branch and many of these travesties against the American people and our military will be rectified.”

[RWC] If you accept Mr. Alexander’s assertion there has been insufficient oversight, how does a Democrat majority change that? After all, if Democrats believed there was insufficient oversight, nothing stopped them from pursuing their own investigations.

“I would like to personally thank all of those that voted to end former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and former U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart’s representation of this area.”

[RWC] I’m still waiting for Mr. Alexander to tell us why we should have voted for Jason Altmire and Bob Casey, Jr. While Mr. Alexander frequently bashed Ms. Hart and Mr. Santorum, not once did his letters tell us why to vote for Messrs. Altmire and Casey. Indeed, Mr. Alexander didn’t mention Mr. Casey even once in all his letters. Mr. Alexander did mention Mr. Altmire once, but only to defend him for being a lobbyist.

That Mr. Alexander and like writers didn’t tell us why to vote for Messrs. Altmire and Casey reminded me of an encounter I had shortly before the November election. I was getting dressed in the YMCA locker room after my daily workout and heard a gentleman going on and on about “do nothing” Hart. I finally got tired of the ranting and politely asked the man a simple question, “What do you expect Jason Altmire to do for you that Ms. Hart didn’t?”

Rather than answer the question, the gentleman ranted about how Ms. Hart was anti-veteran because she supported President Bush’s alleged cuts to the Veterans Administration. I pointed out I had heard that allegation before, checked the budgets since President Bush took office, and found funding had actually increased faster under President Bush than under Bill Clinton. That infuriated the already angry man and he proceeded to call me a liar and other names.

After the man finished yelling at me, I asked my question again. Once again, the gentleman refused to answer and instead went on another name-calling rant. Out of hearing range of the gentleman, one of his friends told me, “He doesn’t know.” The bottom line was, this gentleman just had hatred for Republicans and wasn’t about to let facts get in the way of his hatred.

I could be wrong, but every time I read one of the anti-Hart and/or anti-Santorum letters, I pictured the writer behaving as did this man.