That sound you hear is 60,000 mercenaries running to get on the transports out of Iraq

[NNN0LHI]

Bet they are the first ones out.

Don

[jefferson_dem]

1. Fucking scum of the scum. Kos was so right about those bastards. n/t

[msongs]

2. ????? nt

[Porcupine]

3. I say they should be the LAST out. Manly men they area and all.

Preferably they should not be allowed transport out of the airports or given US troop escorts over roadways. They can get themselves out overland.

I doubt they'd survive but they deserve the chance to try. Maybe some kind, gratefull, Iraqi militia will give them a break and clear them a way to a border.

Nah. Freaking mercs. should face war crimes courts or the Iraqi people; their choice.

[GreenZoneLT]

4. You people don't know what you're talking about

99 percent of those "mercs" are security guards, many from low-wage places like Peru. They do convoy escort and guard buildings and checkpoints. It's not like they're out doing combat ops and killing a lot of civilians.

They ARE extremely annoying in traffic, as they drive through the Green Zone as if they were under fire, cutting off other cars. And they do occasionally shoot up some poor Iraqi out in town who accidentally drives too close to a convoy (Iraqis will not obey traffic rules of any sort, if it kills them). But on the bad-guy scale in Iraq, they're way down the list.

[LSK]

5. I guess you missed the video of "mercs" shooting Iraqis at random

While listening to elvis.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/112805A.shtml

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BDByPfIavQ (you have to sign up on youtube to watch)

[GreenZoneLT]

12. No doubt there are some bad guys working PSDs

It's just relatively speaking, most of them are fairly benign, compared to:

1. Al Qaeda, who torture and behead anyone they don't like.
2. Sunni Takfiri fanatics, who kill people over tiny differences in doctrine, and are so hated and feared that Sunni prisoners sometimes ask to be transferred to the Shiite wing of detention facilities to get away from them.
3. Shiite death squads led by the likes Abu Duraa, who nearly always torture Sunnis they round up at fake checkpoints before they shoot them and dump their bodies in the street or the Tigris.
4. The Iraqi police, who are basically a branch of the Shiite militia.
4. Fifty-leven mafias that finance themselves by kidnapping Iraqis for ransom.
5. Crooked Iraqi politicians and their bodyguards.

[EFerrari]

16. Thank god we have no crooked politicians, mafias or torturers

on our side.
:eyes:

[GreenZoneLT]

18. Oh, please.

There is nowhere like here this side of Somalia or Haiti. It's ridiculous to compare Iraqi crime, mayhem and corruption with anywhere but those places. I've been to Ukraine, and it's a comparative crime-free, prosperous paradise.

[EFerrari]

27. Oh please, my rear. Our government exports and or supports

more crime syndicates, corruption and torture than anyone.

In fact, last time Iraq had a decent government, WE destabilized it.

We don't need to have this conversation. If you're there, keep your head down and get home.

[LSK]

17. why are "mercs" there again?

Oh thats right, to protect the other Contractors who are STEALING jobs that Iraqis can do (and did do before we invaded).

[GreenZoneLT]

20. Ehhhh, I dunno.

Iraqis weren't doing those jobs, mostly. There hasn't been much new construction, f'rinstance, since the late '80s. Saddam had really run the place into the ground.

I agree, the whole Halliburton contract was right up there with all the other fine Bush-Rumsfeld-Bremer decisions. They're actually doing more local contracting now; I just managed to keep our local translator contract and avoid them having to work for a multinational with a sizable pay cut.

[Bluebear]

6. Welcome to DU and Have a Halliburton Holiday! nt

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[KitchenWitch]

8. I always love posts that start with "You people"

Enjoy your very short stay here at DU!

:eyes:

[GreenZoneLT]

14. It was a specific you people

Meant the first three top-posters. Sheesh, I don't like those PSD guys much, either; testosterone-poisoned jerks, mostly, but it's not most of them are evil.

[shanti]

24. yes

it's a dead giveaway...

[Jed Dilligan]

9. Welcome to DU Lieutenant,

are you in Baghdad now?

[Bluebear]

10. Bagdad, New Mexico

101st Chairborne Division.

[Jed Dilligan]

11. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. nt

[Bozita]

19. Maybe I'm dreaming, but the "101st Chairborne Division" reminds me of W

Thanks.

[GreenZoneLT]

21. I wish

New Mexico's too arid, though. Would remind me of here.

[GreenZoneLT]

15. Yep, 7 more months to go.

But who's counting?

[Jed Dilligan]

22. Wow, did you have any idea what you were in for

when you signed up?

My friend took a civvy job with the Corps of Engineers to pay off loans--her job one day "moved" from SF to Baghdad. She had quite an experience, to say the least.

[GreenZoneLT]

23. I volunteered.

I've been in the Navy Reserve since '81, volunteered to do a year here. I had vague hopes that things would be a bit less awful here than it appeared from a distance. Not so much.

[LSK]

25. that big fat paycheck must be nice now

Have you thanked the taxpayers for it recently?

[GreenZoneLT]

28. It doesn't suck

I think they're getting their money's worth, though.

[LSK]

30. how do you figure???

What possible benefit could Americans be getting from this???

Or do you mean the Chinese who are financing this for us?

[Jed Dilligan]

26. I would not have done the same,

but I understand the spirit of brotherhood and service in which you chose to serve.

:patriot:

[Porcupine]

13. What they do YOU get blamed for.

There are reasons, good reasons that have lasted for most of recorded history, that mercenaries are cursed. The most basic reason is that they screw things up for the regular troops who are expected to clean up the mess.

If we weren't willing to use US troops or Iraqi citizens for these jobs we had no business going in. Now we have mercs who aren't proficient in Arabic OR english; that must work great.

Thanks for posting from the Zone. Please keep your armour on till the big bug out; I'm sure somebody back here is counting on your return.

[BrotherBuzz]

29. Do you think many of those low paid "mercs" will be offered ....

lucrative jobs with the U.S. financed mercenary armies being trained in places like Paraguay's Mariscal Estigarribia when their present contract expires?

[baldguy]

31. Try to arrest them for something. Go ahead.

You can't. You don't have jurisdiction. NOBODY DOES! Mercenaries have a license to kill anybody - Iraq citizens, foreign nationals, even members of the US military

The mercenaries employed by the US govt and the multinationals in Iraq are officially - by the grace of George W Bush - above the law. The Iraqis know this, and it gives one more reason to hate us.