Contractors put Iraq reconstruction on hold

[Robbien]

"We'll give it another week. If it doesn't improve, we'll have to leave," says Trevor Holborn of the Amman-based Shaheen Group, one of hundreds of foreign workers who have suspended their operations and headed for shelter inside the walls of the Green Zone, the heavily fortified enclave where the occupation has its headquarters. "We still have people in Iraq, but we may not able to work on a day to day basis," said a contractor with a big US energy company. "Right now Iraq is not a safe place to work, and the safety of our staff comes first."

<snip>

Coalition officials say they have contingency plans for an evacuation of civilians, but remain fully staffed. One said it was a "miracle" that none of the scores of mortars and rockets which have so rocked the enclave have hit their targets. British diplomats and some contractors are bunkered down in an underground car-park inside the Green zone, dubbed the "Batcave". But many American contractors are housed in trailer accommodation. Their sides have been bolstered with sandbags but the soft-top roofs are singularly vulnerable to mortar attack.

<snip>

Amid continuing negotiations for a ceasefire, insurgents have continued torching convoys carrying food, fuel and other necessities to Baghdad. Coalition authority officials deny the attacks on their supply lines have interrupted the delivery of vital goods, but contractors say Iraqi drivers are shying away from work with the coalition leaving ports clogged with containers. "Try to lease a truck now, no one will give you one," said Faisal Khudairy, an Iraqi contractor with a large deal to build a military base north of Baghad.

<snip>

Some contractors complained that their contracts prevented them from pulling out of Iraq.

"Many companies have given control over the evacuation procedure to the US Department of Defence, so we cannot leave even if we want to," said a security company director. He said insurgents are now targeting mercenaries in Iraq, aware that foreign contractors win more headlines than soldiers.

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1079420268807

[sspiderjohn]

1. What kind of lemming would take in job in Iraq these days?

nt

[whatelseisnew]

2. WOW a news source actually calls them mercenaries?

Somebody is going to get fired

[dArKeR]

3. In my few seconds of watching Whore TV, I constantly hear a Repuke

Congressperson or Repuke Media Whore say, 'Iraq is better off now. We're building roads, opening schools...'

Well excuse me, who destroyed it all in the first place and closed the schools in the first place?

We are truely a nation of not so smart people and the Media Whores are not telling us the truth. The Bush Crime Family with the aid of the lying Media Whores could make most any leader in the world look as bad or worse than Saddam. From Marcos, Gaddafi, Mushariff, Sharon, Hu Jintao, Kim, Mubarak, Suharto, Chang Kai Shek... to Bush.

If our (first ever) MBA pResident is so smart, why wasn't he able to figure out a solution without killing so many Iraqis and Americans? Why didn't Bush offer the reward for Saddam before the war? Why not 10 Billion Dollars?

-----------------

If I could ever get through to one of these live talk shows; my question:
'Would you support a constitutional amendment to mandate that 30% of each branch of government, Executive, Legislative, and Judicial, must be sent overseas to fight in any declared war? To be drafted in a lottery, no matter ones age, race, sex, or religious affiliation.'

[dArKeR]

4. Are most of the foreign workers and mercenaries in Iraq 'new hires'?

I haven't read up so much lately so I don't know if this was published. I'm wondering if some of the them were unemployed and had to take the first job they could find. And/or if they were working but under financial stress and needed more money.

And info on the company briefings these people received before they went to Iraq? Were they told the truth of the situation in Iraq? Did Rumsfeld and Cheney, (and Shit-for-Brains), lie to the contracting companies and withhold data on the actual dangers? Are any family members of these people trying to get this info?

[Robbien]

5. In New Zealand

Many of the mercenaries are policemen who took a year's leave of absence in order to get the big bucks in Iraq. But last week NZ put a stop to policemen leaves of absence to stop this practice.

The article also said the mercenary firm put an ad in the paper and six hundred people signed up.

So I would say the mercenaries from NZ are either the unemployed or the poorly paid employed looking for better opportunities.

[mia]

6. Who will rescue the US?

This article makes some good points and relates to the fate of occupation contractors in Iraq. It was posted earlier under the opinions and editorials thread.


http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/04/11/1081621832400.html?from=t...

April 12, 2004

America is slowly learning that it is Iraqis who will decide their own future, says Martin Woollacott.

<snip>

The truth in Iraq has, from the start, been that the American "occupation", like most occupations, has never meant any kind of close military control of Iraqi society. Even if close control was desirable, American and other coalition troops are not present in sufficient numbers - nor do they have the language and other skills that would enable them to exercise it.

Iraq is not yet the defeat for the US that it could become. But America is chastened and perplexed.
While those who predicted an unalloyed welcome for the Americans proved to be wrong, they were right to the extent that the US occupation relies on the consent of important forces in Iraqi society and on the promise of beneficial political and economic changes. It is this consent and the belief in that promise that is wavering as fighting spreads - and along with it the idea that the Americans are losing their way and have no clear idea how to reassert themselves.

<snip>

Iraq is not yet the defeat for the US that it could become. But America is chastened and perplexed. The Bush Administration, which believed so devoutly that it could move mountains, may now know better. It may even grasp that the concept to which it has always paid lip-service - that it is Iraqis who will decide their own future - is now more than just useful rhetoric. It is Iraqis, in the accumulation of their choices, decisions and actions, who will largely decide whether America's intervention ends up as a success or as a failure.

The Americans went to Iraq to rescue the Iraqis, and now stand in need of being rescued themselves.

Martin Woollacott writes on international affairs for The Guardian, London, where this article first appeared.

[catmandu57]

7. There was a job fair in Houston Texas last month

companies were hiring people to work in Iraq, they had a very long line. People were willing to go because, 1. they couldn't find work here, and, 2. they were offering fantastic wages.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

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

[Robbien]

9. What? Are you nuts?

Or are you just trying to smearch the name of DU so that your post will be picked up and spread around the web as representative of how hateful DU is?