When Casey Calls

It's always a good day at Newsdesk when Casey Porter calls, not least because it means that he's still alive and in one piece. That's not hyperbole, because Porter is currently in Iraq, one of the many US military personnel on the bad end of the bad deal known as stop-loss.

But in making the best of a bad day, Porter runs his own YouTube channel about his experiences in-country and what it's really like on the ground.

The co-founder of Iraq Veterans Against The War's Fort Hood branch called to give a heads-up about his latest video (which he's still editing) about the remarkable world of commercial concessions on military bases. Troops coming back off combat missions are confronted by officially-sanctioned car dealers and jewelry firms that get them to part with their small salaries for pretty gewgaws.

"They don't have any financial discipline and they're not making good money, but it's still better money than they've ever had," said Porter, who once had a vendor try to sell him an $865 watch at a forward operating base. "We show the tricks and corruption in getting soldiers to spend their money."

So why is this allowed to happen? Well, first off, the stores with the concessions are the same stores that supply the US military itself ("A mile away from open combat missions, there's high-end stores," said Porter. "If you walk into there, and you look at the video, you would think you were back in the states, except for the guys in miitary uniforms with guns.") As for what the military gets, well, Porter put it bluntly: "A broke soldier is a re-enlisting soldier."