My plan for troop withdrawal from Iraq. Tell me what you think

[Pryderi]

Have a "2 for 1" exchange. For every 2 Iraqis trained, 1 US soldier comes home.

Or, for every 2 Iraqis trained, 1 mercenary comes home.

There are about 25,000 "military contractors" in Iraq doing what was traditionally military work, except they make 8-10 times the pay as a soldier makes.

If we start replacing mercs, the money savings can go into supporting our troops with better pay and medical care.

[BlueEyedSon]

1. Arguably, mercs who are career military guys have 10+ years of training

how are you going to give an Iraqi an equivalent "education" to replace a merc, in a reasonable time frame?

[Pryderi]

3. Mercs also hurt military morale, and don't have to answer to chain of comm

"Contractors Say Marines Behaved Abusively

WASHINGTON — Matt Raiche knew he was in trouble when the Marines handed him an orange jumpsuit, a bottle to urinate in, a Koran and a Muslim prayer rug.

Marine guards put the former Marine into a 6-foot-by-6-foot concrete cell, locked the steel door and told him to keep his mouth shut. In cells nearby, he heard imprisoned insurgents screaming in Arabic.

"They took us to be … insurgent terrorists," said Raiche, 34, one of 16 U.S. contractors arrested by Marines last month on suspicion of firing indiscriminately at U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians. "We said we were Americans. We didn't know what was going on."

So began three days of captivity for the employees of North Carolina-based Zapata Engineering, who were apprehended after Marines allegedly witnessed them firing weapons from an armored convoy passing through Fallouja.

Although the details remain unclear, the May 28 incident reflects the long-simmering tension between the military and private business in
Iraq. Even though the government has hired companies to perform many functions there — including providing security — it does not formally oversee their activities, allowing misunderstandings and disputes to fester."


http://p71.news.scd.yahoo.com/s/latimests/contractorssaymarinesbehavedabusively

[BlueEyedSon]

4. Bringing up other issues (which I agree with, BTW) does not answer my Q.

[Pryderi]

5. We've won wars without mercenaries in the past, why can't we do so now?

[Felix Mala]

2. We'll have to be there 30 to 50 years. Didn't GWB tell you?

The moment we leave, the place implodes: this year, five years from now, ten. Too bad Bush didn't check with anyone who knew anything about the Middle East before he invaded. When Iraq falls, Saudi Arabia is next and that's the whole ballgame ... exactly the kind of thing that Osama was after when he crashed jets into the WTC. We couldn't have played to his cause better if we'd gotten instructions.