Email from an American Mercenary in Iraq

[Indie Media Magazine]

-------------- Original Message ---------------------

Hey guys, been a while since I sent one of these things out but we've been really busy lately. Lots of major goings on, lots of major shit and a lot of heartache.

First and foremost, we lost 4 members of our PSD team this past Sunday. We were ambushed about 900 meters from our front gate, and the soft car with our shooters took an RPG. The round entered through the rear window (pax side) and impacted on the door pillar behind the driver's seat. The explosion removed most of the driver's head, and mangled the shooter behind him. The front seat passenger attempted to remove the body, while taking fire from 6 AK-47's and was shot down. The tail gunner was thrown approximately 20 meters from the vehicle, was shot 3 times, but managed to escape. The shooter behind the front pax seat was missing until today. He was found outside Sadr City in various pieces.

Email from an American Mercenary in Iraq

[DenverDem]

1. A fascinating look at the NWO style outsourced war of the 21st century.

Your tax dollars at work.

Little or no oversight.

Rather terrifying.

[Hog lover]

2. Be sure to read the entire thing

Some details will curl your hair.

[Eloriel]

9. Uh, those details posted already did

:puke:

[Hog lover]

13. Smarty pants!

More details make it even worse.

[bobbieinok]

3. end of the email

. The level of outright savagery is amazing. There is zero respect for human life. These motherfuckers throw CHILDREN into the path of 40,000 pound uparmored Suburbans to get the drivers to stop. Thing is you can't. Want to know how it feels to run down a 4 or 5 year old child? Trust me you don't. Shit gives you fucking nightmares for weeks. There is no Iraqi civilization- there is anarchy and blind hatred. Go to sleep tonight and KNOW that you are in the best damned contry on the face of the earth- PERIOD.

[teryang]

6. Nightmares for a lifetime

Not weeks. Anyone who reads the medical records of war veterans knows this.


"Know that you are in the best damned country on the face of the earth-PERIOD"

Seems like a gross non sequitor. He doesn't get it. This is the typical error of "belt buckle" philosophers who think empirical experience gives them political insight.

I don't think a suburban weighs 20 tons.

The Serbians had it right? Take all the villagers and put them in a slit trench?

He couldn't be more wrong. Unless he were an invader, in war of conquest.

[aquart]

4. Jesus.

"Our living conditions have drastically improved, we now have heating, air, satcomms, and I managed to get my grubbies on a 32" TV and a DVD player. Life is becoming rather comfortable here. My cat also says hello, and to send more tuna fish. She is also a full-on attack kitty. I shit you not, she ATTACKS anyone who doesn't belong in my room. The houseboys won't go near my place unless I box the cat up. She nearly took one's eye out (after climbing his body hissing and growling like a cougar). Good kitty =)

To my friends back in the world, don't let the petty shit get to you. No matter how aggravated you get with the boss, your girl/boyfriend/husband/wife, your car, your yardwork etc. you have it good. I've done insane things like this before plenty of times in my career, however this time is different. The level of outright savagery is amazing. There is zero respect for human life. These motherfuckers throw CHILDREN into the path of 40,000 pound uparmored Suburbans to get the drivers to stop. Thing is you can't. Want to know how it feels to run down a 4 or 5 year old child? Trust me you don't. Shit gives you fucking nightmares for weeks. There is no Iraqi civilization- there is anarchy and blind hatred. Go to sleep tonight and KNOW that you are in the best damned contry on the face of the earth- PERIOD."

[Fridays Child]

5. It must be hell for fr**pers. They thrive on this violent stuff...

...yet they have to deny that it's happening and, instead, parrot all of the official Iraq War success memes.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

7. How to you go back to normal life after that?

Now I know what they were meant when the boys I know who have been there said, "some of it I will never talk about".

[RaulGroom]

8. This guy needs to get out soon

The advanced paranoia is frightening. There is strong potential this guy could crack and do something very unwise. Also, isn't it interesting the rationalizations people have, the scapegoats their minds create... I know a guy in Iraq working as a merc, and he told me about the "children in the road" thing...

Basically, if you're driving around in Iraq you have to drive 120 mph to avoid being blown up, so you're inevitably going to run over people, including children. This guy can't accept that there are just children running out into the road and he's killing them, so he invents this idea that the Iraqis are shoving the kids out in the road to get him to stop. When you think about it for very long, it's obvious that's not a particularly logical method of trying to stop a vehicle traveling 120 mph.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. The way he talks about the Iraqis

reminds me of the way some Vietnam veterans talked about "the gooks."

I agree that he needs to get out of there, and I feel sorry for any innocent Arab-American who encounters him later on.

[Blue_Tires]

11. fuck 'im

he's getting paid good $$$$ (from all of us) in exchange for his soul, free will, conscience, and sense of decency...i hate these mercs

[Blue_Tires]

12. another quote

"Since I have been here, my mood on the Iraqi people has swung from one side of the pendulum to the other. Right now, it is definitely on the downside. It is so strange that the same group of people that invite you to their homes for tea will advocate violence on the scale that I have seen in the past three months. If you want my opinion, and if you are reading this you'll get it- is that every single man, woman and child that is in this surrounding village should be brought to a slit trench and shot down. The Serbs had it right. Racist? Perhaps, but it is what I am feeling right now, might change my attitudes later."


people, THIS is the face, voice, and 'cultural sensitivity' from America that we send to other countries...we might have to wait another generation before the rest of the world comes close to forgiving us

[Indie Media Magazine]

14. The terrible thing is that I know this Merc.....

he was a good guy before the war, a Police Officer and member of the tactical squad. The humor is still there but it overshadows the darkness and horrors he has seen. I don't think he will ever be the same. I hope he makes it out in one piece. Funny that KBR has gone from building runways and small cities to peddling drugs and now hired killers.