My Uncle the Merc (um, contractor) isn't going back to Iraq this time!

[Pachamama]

Some of you on the DU remember months ago me telling you about my Uncle who is a "Contractor" in Iraq who was being paid more in one day (tax free) than what our soldiers make (taxed) in a month....He had been to Iraq twice in the last year for 2-3 month stints where he was training Iraqi Police & soldiers at the Baghdad airport....At first it seemed like really easy money to him...He could make in a month more than he made in his best year...

Well, just talked to my Dad today and he said my Uncle just got back and has been asked, no begged, to return and continue training Iraqi Troops & police. He was even offered double what he was already making - he said NO. He apparantely had trained a bunch of the Iraqis who were all executed recently and it really shook him up. He was a Vietnam Vet and although has seen a lot, just said to my Dad he couldn't deal with it anymore and that it wasn't worth risking his life for any amount of money.

This, coming from someone who didn't seem to concerned the last 6 months. And he even got to be with top security out at the Baghdad Airport....

I'm glad he isn't going back...but can you imagine if someone like him who atleast had been in one of the "safest" places in Iraq doesn't want to go back? Imagine how our soldiers feel...bet they wish they had the same choice my Uncle had....

[Tux]

1. Damn

Iraq is hell. Too bad we can't get out now. We have to finish bilding up their nation to the point they can take over so we can leave.

[leftofthedial]

2. the hell of it is, the longer we stay

the more there is that needs "building up."

[leesa]

30. Not true. WE are the enemy. There is nothing positive we can

do in Iraq. If you actually believe that our country intends to build anything back up in Iraq, you are severely deluded. Our presence IS the problem.

[LuPeRcALiO]

3. smart move.

at this point, training Iraqi police is about as safe as skydiving without a parachute.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Nope, I'll take the skydiving without the parachute

and I wish the troops could get out, NOW... bring the troops home NOW

[immoderate]

28. We call that "body gliding."

The trick is thick rubber soles and, oh, BEND THOSE KNEES!!

--IMM

[babylonsister]

5. Wow! The truth is finally filtering out. Thank you!

I'm glad your uncle is home and safe, and I cannot even image being a soldier in Iraq now, or a contractor.

[Pachamama]

7. That's why I posted this-Things are so bad there that even well protected

contractors like my Uncle with the best security one could have are saying no more, no way. Imagine this - He was offered nearly $7500 (tax free a day) and said - No...Not even for one more month...He apparantely had a few close calls and is extremely affected by having a whole group of men that he had trained and spent time with all get killed execution style and dumped. And more than once too...And on a few occasions he had some close calls on the Baghdad Airport road and going between some locations where training occurred and the so-called "green zone". When I had conversations with him months ago and asked him wasn't he concerned, he never seemed worried. Now, according to my father who is extremely close to him and talks to him a lot and just picked up at the airport upon his return from Iraq, said that there is no amount of money or anything that could get him to go back to that - Hell.

Aah, yes, freedom and democracy on the march....and ofcourse, we have a President who has "piece/peace of mind" and doesn't worry....oh yeah, things are just peachy keen there and just getting better....

[pnorman]

23. "$7500 (tax free a day)"

Do I read that correctly? $7500 per DAY, and $225,000 a MONTH? Also, I can believe that about "tax free" for the 'mercs', but I thought that GIs in combat were also "tax exempt". I want to "run with this" on my union BBS, and I'd like to do so with rock solid facts.

pnorman

[Horse with no Name]

27. Yes.

I know a contractor who bought his mother a veryyyyy nice house and paid cash for it from 2 months wages in Iraq.
However, he only made $4000 a day.
I think the person in the OP was offered this to go back to that hellhole when he made the decision not to.
So not all of them are making that.

[pnorman]

35. I guess I could go with "at LEAST $3000/day".

That's eye-catching in itself, and certainly MUCH higher than the soldier he was supposed to replace. No WONDER the soldiers are disgruntled. But are the soldiers tax exempt while serving under combat? I always thought that they were.

This topic of mercenaries being recruited for such duties, needs as much publicity as it can get. It should prove to be a major embarrassment to BushCo. I undertand that there are from 20 to 40 THOUSAND "private individuals" in Iraq, with most of them in combat capacity. That should make them much larger than the UK contingent of soldiers. And many seem to be recruited from sources that BushCo would rather not talk about.

[Pachamama]

32. That's what they offered him - he didn't accept - values his life too much

He was making about $3000 a day before...they upped it to keep him, but he didn't care about the $$$ anymore.

Sorry, can't provide you with more info for your facts to provide to union BBS...the reality is that I probably provided too many details already for the gov't to figure out who he is and that he's "talking" about his financial arrangements with the gov't contractors. It wouldn't be too hard for them to figure out a former Vietnam guy who just left Iraq, was at Iraq Baghdad airport training Iraqi troops and police and had some of his trainees executed....

I may have already jeopardized his "anonymity"....that makes me uncomfortable just knowing that....

[gulfcoastliberal]

6. They can't even secure the road into the airport - "route irish"

What a hellhole we've created.

[Dover]

8. How horrible for morale to see Mercs making so much money and

being able to choose whether or not to be there, while the regular guys HAVE to go through that hell and are barely compensated to boot...even if it's just as likely that for most of them it's not so much about wanting more pay and benefits as it is about wanting to come home.

Does make you wonder, though, if the armed forces... if privatized...could provide enough willing 'guns for hire' to be effective in a war situation. I mean, who volunteers for Hell?
Yes, alot of regular service soldiers signed up for a steady, if insubstantial, income and an education, under the acceptable cloak of patriotic necessity.
But how many would sign up for a job that involves killing others just for the money and the protection of corporate interests?

Seems like it would be a very small group indeed.
Hence Rummy's dream of a high tech fighting force. No need for humans" with all their messy emotions and respect for Life.

[Pachamama]

9. Yes indeed...all that taxpayer money going to the Mercs/contractors & our

troops making dirt and not having a choice....

And yes, you bring up and excellent point about "privatization" of troops...just how effective could they be? It seems that there is a point where money, regardless of what amount, can't be thrown at something to fix it.....

I love my Uncle, I'm glad he's staying home, staying alive...I didn't approve of what he was doing or being paid with taxpayer money to do.

I originally posted months ago about the money he was making because I was disgusted to hear what he was being paid - with our tax dollars and to think about all the soldiers and nat'l guardsmen who weren't as safe and being paid little...

And Americans wonder why the war is "costing" so much...its all to pay the mercs and contractors....imagine if my Uncle gets paid that, what the cut is that his "contractor" is being paid with tax dollars...

[Dover]

12. Yes, just another way that corporations are bilking the people.

This should be paid for out of their pockets....just the cost of doing business.

Interesting side note. I was told by a Dell employee that their "boyz town-like corporate culture" used to train and get their employees psyched up by playing little mock war games. Wonder if any might consider doing that for real as employees?

[loudsue]

10. America's privatized military is not bound to hiring only Americans

They can, in fact, hire anyone BUT Americans, if they so choose.

But that is the "joy" of the privatized military as far as PNAC is concerned: because an American army would likely not target our own citizens as readily, if we citizens "got out of hand". What the cheerleaders of privatization don't understand is that when you take the patriotism out of the military through privatization, you open up a whole crate of cans of worms. Just like when you privatize the jails/prison system, there is no politician that can lose his job if conditions become more like Guantanamo.

Privatization is the devil.

You make some good points, Dover: Who in their right mind would volunteer for Hell? Only some VERY poor people who are willing to give their lives to provide their family back home with something, or those very few sick people who really enjoy killing others while risking their own lives. (I used to work with a guy like that...he liked it.)

:kick:

[uncle ray]

14. reality show time

7500 a day is a bit shy of a quarter million a month. strap a camera to each one and make a reality show! the idiots will line up to get killed on live TV.

[Pachamama]

16. The scary thing, is that it probably would draw a bunch of punks who would

happily run around with an assault rifle and camera and do this...and even scarier, that the dumbasses in this country addicted to reality shows would be gobbling up this stuff and the ratings would be skyrocketing....

Remember the Gropenator's movie "The Running Man"? Bet Americans would be just like the audiences in that movie, glued to watching the characters' get killed...

Sick, so sick, but sadly, I'm afraid that you are right about this even being something that could be done....I bet there is some Mark Burnett type trying to figure out how to pitch this and make it a show....

Only problem - is maybe that would backfire on the administration and Americans would actually wake up and see just how bad it is there...

[MountainLaurel]

25. A DU thread yesterday

Discussed the hiring of Salvadoran (I think) mercenaries for activity in Iraq.

Another attempt at getting around U.S. violation of the Geneva Conventions? If the violators aren't Americans, we can't be in violation, can we?

:eyes:

[FreedomAngel82]

11. It must be WAY worse then I thought

I knew it was REALLY bad but if this guy doesn't want to go back it must be hell on earth. So horrible. I'm glad for your family though. I wish we could bring them all back. Bush won't be happy till they're drained as a country though. :mad: :cry:

[annabanana]

26. kick. . . . . n/t

[ngGale]

13. Since he said this and doesn't want to go back...

I can assume he thinks it's worse than Vietnam. I did read somewhere that Halliburton is having a hard time getting more mercs, help.
Glad he's not going back..

[Pachamama]

15. Yes, he did say to my Dad that we are in another Vietnam - but he added

that he thinks this is worse and is on its way to being something that will make Vietnam look like nothing...

My Dad said that he didn't look very well when he picked him up at the airport...he said he was relieved to be home, but very shook up from this last trip that lasted the last 3 months. My Dad was actually very worried about him because he said that my Uncle was talking about having problems sleeping and even having memories of Vietnam...that is something that really concerned my Dad for his brother...My Uncle saw some really ugly things in Vietnam, things he never wanted to talk about. For him to now be making these kind of comparisons and even stating that what is happening there is much much worse (particularly in referencing the insurgency attacks and assaults).

I'm glad he's not going back either, but I wonder how much of it that he was able to leave behind or if its going to be haunting him....and I keep thinking of all our kids there that are be haunted as they are there and the ones here at home now minus a limb or doped up with psychotropic drugs to help them with the PTSD that they are suffering.

[Horse with no Name]

31. Not sure how it is with your uncle

But the person I am acquainted with received his "call" on 911 and has been over there the entire time. His job was security for people like Allawi and Rumsfeld, etc so he actually did quite a bit of traveling. He finally came home for good last month.
He has more money than he can use.
He hasn't said much about his experiences, although he says his favorite place that he spent time in was Beirut--said it actually had a great nightlife.
I'd love to sit down and pick his brain, but at this time, he seems very close mouthed about everything, other than the fact he is officially retired. (He is 45).

[EFerrari]

17. Thank God his system won't let him go back there.

Thoughts and wishes for your uncle. If more good men did that, they would have to stop.

[0rganism]

18. whoa! Nominated

Speaks volumes, really.

[jimshoes]

19. I only wish our

GI's had the same freedom to choose whether or not to partake in Operation Steal The Oil. How many of our soldiers would opt out I wonder?

[Just Me]

20. *sigh* Well, he has the choice to stay here without serious consequence.

Our soldiers must go or face imprisonment.

Someone, please call this war off. We shouldn't have waged war in the first place and the destructive and costly consequences far outweigh any possible benefit. Please, for the love of God, stop this insane war.

[gratuitous]

29. Maybe it's time for the soldiery

To take a hard look at that unsavory choice: Desertion or a meaningless death. At least you're still alive in jail.

[glitch]

33. And when we get a sane president again, amnesty. nt

[Swamp Rat]

21. Kick and recommended! n/t

[Karenina]

22. Kick!

:kick:

[warrior1]

24. Does he feel bad enough

to give back his blood money?

[Pachamama]

34. I don't know...I'm not going to ask him that question...It's hard enough

for me to stomach knowing that he did this...I suppose you could call it blood money, I guess he sees it as he was doing his patriotic duty and helping "democracy in Iraq" by training the troops and police there. That's probably how he justified it in the beginning...how he thinks of it now, I do not know. Atleast I know he wasn't a trained assassin being paid to kill insurgents....atleast that I know from what he tells his family, right? :eyes: