Bad Profiteer. No Cookie.

So, the past few days have been hell, spent dealing with issues caused by one particular contracting company responsible for our interpreters. Apparently, one of our guys tested positive for tuberculosis in his last physical. He was one of seventeen out of the brigade. So what do they do? Well, like any warm-blooded American corporation, they decided to fire them. Unless of course, they can go to Baghdad with one of us in tow to escort them, and pay $45-55 for an examination to prove that they're asymptomatic. Of course, it's not terribly difficult to tell that someone is asymptomatic with TB; not coughing up blood, for example, is a pretty good indicator.

It's just more evidence in the case against the whole rotten system. When I went in to talk to their field manager, he acted like I was intruding, wondering aloud why people kept coming in when all the necessary information was on the email. I'm sorry Mr. Contractor man, I didn't get that email list. Is there a time I can come back when you're not PMSing? And then of course, he gave me a big story about how he didn't want us Army types to think they're screwing our terps, the damn gutsy people without whom we cannot do our jobs. After all, he says, if this happened in the States, wouldn't you expect the same thing to happen.

Well, no. I don't think people would get automatically laid off if they tested positive on an error-prone diagnostic. Especially if they were vaccinated. Especially if they were asymptomatic. And especially without their employer helping them to get checked out. You know that whole (admittedly flawed) employer-based health care system we have? Yeah. In fact, I'm pretty sure you'd get sued if you tried something like this in the States.

But maybe I'm just being too cynical. Maybe they're really concerned about people's health, not their bottom line. Maybe they're not just looking for easy ways to shave their payroll now that operations here are winding down.