Why Do Soldiers in Iraq Have to Pay to Call Home?

This is not directly an issue for California's Attorney General, but it is emblematic of how our society's priorities have gotten really skewed.

I received a brochure, asking for a donation to the USO, so it could provide pre-paid phone cards to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, so they can phone home for free. Details are here: http://www.uso.org/whatwedo/usoprograms/usooperationphonehome/

There is something very wrong here. We will send our soldiers to the far side of the planet to get shot at and blown up, but they have to pay to call their families? As a society, we won't even cough up the money for our soldiers to call home, while we are giving billions of dollars to Halliburton, Blackwater, and DynCorp? (And to bribe various Afghans and Iraqis.)

My guess is that someone is making money - lots of money - charging American soldiers for their phone calls home. There should be outrage at this, and a congressional investigation, but since the Democrats and Republicans have enabled this shameless corporate profiteering in all segments of our society, they can no longer recognize that this is simply wrong.