Shots Fired Where Civilians Were Taken Hostage

[leftchick]

(CBS News) BAGHDAD British ground forces and U.S. military helicopters fought with gunmen on Friday in an area of southern Iraq where four American security contractors and their Austrian co-worker were taken hostage after their convoy was hijacked,
British and Iraqi officials said.

Two of the gunmen were killed in the fighting, and it was not known whether the five hostages were being held in the area at the time, said Capt. Tane Dunlop, a spokesman for British forces, and an Iraqi police officer.

Four American security contractors and their Austrian co-worker were being held hostage Friday after their convoy was hijacked in southern Iraq, their employer said.

Another nine civilians who were traveling with the convoy when it was attacked Thursday near the city of Basra have been released, said an official for Crescent Security Group.

"We have four American security contractors and one Austrian unaccounted for," he said in a telephone interview from Kuwait, where the company is based. "All the civilian truck drivers have been accounted for, a mix of men from countries such as India, Pakistan, the Philippines."

http://cbs11tv.com/topstories/topstories_story_320212444.html

[EST]

1. I have no idea why it is so and I'm a bit ashamed to admit it,

when "American security contractors" are captured or killed, I cannot seem to dig up any pity...or even real sadness. I am ashamed of these so-called "contractors" (they must be ashamed to be called what they are--mercenaries) and a little ashamed to reveal that I mostly don't give a damn whether they live or die.

[saigon68]

2. They are MERCENARIES they need a Rose Petal parade

[EFerrari]

3. I was just thinking that kidnappings is how some people in Iraq

are getting their share of the war dollars. We could have made sure that contracts were distributed fairly and to Iraqi business people. Can you imagine how different Iraq would look today?

This is the price of greed in action. I have really mixed feelings about the mercs. At least, being there is their choice.

[EST]

5. "Contractors" are not people who got contracts to rebuild

after we tore it all up.
I used to think this was so and had some concern about their safety and the fundamental unfairness of simply trying to get a job done and to help clean up the harm while getting shot at.

Then I found out that "contractors" is just a euphemism for hired killers who carry out "contracts"--ala Mafioso assassins, hired to rub people out.

For those criminals -and I consider them criminals- this is a cold cash war. Their pay of 1000 to 3000 bucks a day certainly puts them on par with the crook who is hired by someone to kill their spouse for a few thousand, except they need fear no legal difficulty.

on edit: I think I may have misinterpreted your post.
I do know that if some foreign country decided to take over the US and occupied with the assistance of "contractors," one of my biggest concerns would be to get close enough to put a .22 slug in their necks.

[EFerrari]

7. I see what you mean. You're right, of course.

Silly me, I was actually thinking about contractors, not mercenaries.

(This puppy has kept me up all night so I'm misreading.)

I can't help thinking, though, that this private army might not even be necessary if we'd been honest brokers in the first place. On the other hand, had our govenment been honest, we wouldn't be there at all.

[Richard Steele]

4. Mercenaries and war profiteers. I shed no tears for them.

Our TROOPS have no choice about being there;
I save my concern for them.

[leftchick]

6. what is alarming is the use of US and UK forces

to rescue mercs making ten times as much as they do.