Our Eternal Presence in Iraq by AnthonyT

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Our Eternal Presence in Iraq

POSTED BY: ANTHONYT
UPDATED: Monday, December 19, 2011 14:04
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Monday, December 19, 2011 9:25 AM

Freedom is Important because People are Important

http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/17/world/meast/iraq-troops-leave/index.html
?hpt=hp_bn4

Hello,

On this historic day, we remove the last of our troops from Iraq.

And we leave 5,000 mercenaries, 4,500 other contractors, and 1,700 diplomats, law enforcement officers, and experts in various fields. So, now that the Iraqi dictator is vanquished, and the war is over, and we have fully withdrawn, we have more agents of the American government in Iraq than before we started. 11,200 persons paid by our government to conduct operations there. And they will probably be there forever.

One may wonder why we need 5,000 security contractors to protect Americans in Iraq. Certainly they are not there to protect just U.S. government employees. That would mean 1 protector per .8 government employees. Almost a personal bodyguard for each person. Perhaps these mercenaries are protecting our embassy, because we expect a company of soldiers to attack it?

Or perhaps we have some business interests we need to secure in the area, using government-hired mercenaries...

--Anthony

_______________________________________________

"In every war, the state enacts a tax of freedom upon the citizenry. The unspoken promise is that the tax shall be revoked at war's end. Endless war holds no such promise. Hence, Eternal War is Eternal Slavery." --Admiral Robert J. Henner

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Monday, December 19, 2011 10:11 AM

PIZMOBEACH

... fully loaded, safety off...

Iran?
If not then I take the concern about the military doing what the military wants as #2. And "mercenaries" are an extension of the military - we just don't have to be as responsible on paper.

Scifi movie music + Firefly dialogue clips, 24 hours a day - http://www.scifiradio.com

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Monday, December 19, 2011 12:17 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

Mercinaries are problematic, we shouldn't be doing that. If we're going to do something then _we need to do it, not pay Warstuff Inc. to do it. Otherwise we need to not be doing stuff.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Monday, December 19, 2011 1:57 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Quote:
Originally posted by AnthonyT:
One may wonder why we need 5,000 security contractors to protect Americans in Iraq. Certainly they are not there to protect just U.S. government employees. That would mean 1 protector per .8 government employees. Almost a personal bodyguard for each person. Perhaps these mercenaries are protecting our embassy, because we expect a company of soldiers to attack it?

And the sites, from opportunistic or desperate looters - you'd be amazed at how MANY people it takes to properly secure a perimeter 24/7, even the smallest one you need a minimum of six, which is 3 shifts, 2 floaters and an on-call supervisor/liason, and even with six it's damn hard going for the lot of em...

Which is why I have been so damn busy as of late cause we just don't have the bodies to cover it all which means I gotta stand to and do their job plus mine, seven days a week if I wanna spring em even in rotation to have some personal/family time.

Of course, I still say we get our grubby hands offa that country, but logistically securing a site requires far more personnel than a layman would expect.

-Frem

I do not serve the Blind God.

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Monday, December 19, 2011 2:04 PM

DREAMTROVE

Obama is doing just what McCain said he'd do: stay for fifty or a hundred years. The only space between them was rhetoric, as ever.

That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

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