A look at the mercs in Iraq.

[MSgt213]

Very good article at the link with pictures for the slow readers.

http://www.20six.co.uk/weblogEntry/x8ww81cjf0fa

[ACK]

1. Unlawfull combatants

'nuff said.

+

[MSgt213]

2. You are absolutely right. But we are going to pay for their mistakes not

the company we hired to provided them to us.

[patrice]

3. Gun Nuts with an excu$e to kill. God forgive us! - eom

[tom_paine]

4. Fucking Hessians. Used by our current King George for the same reason

That OTHER IDIOT son of the Ariostocracy did in 1778.

To be able to more easily lie to the Imperial Subjects about the number of dead. To allow the Empire to do terrible things outside of the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice).

This makes me sick. Imperial Amerika makes me sick. I want the Old American Republic RESTORED NOW!

[MSgt213]

6. Then we need to get the lying, covering up, greedy ass, fucking Republican

out of every fucking form of government. I used to think these people were harmless crazy motherfuckers, but they fucking dangerous to our country, our economy and our very way of life.

[tom_paine]

7. Total agreement, Fellow Serviceman

Total agreement. Wanna see the latest Totalitarian Imperial Atrocity?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=175x359

They are forcing us. They are leaving us with no choice.

May God Have Mercy on us All.

[MSgt213]

8. That is simply outrageous. Why should any party I don't care if they are

democrats or republicans, be able to for lack of a better word, cheat to get elected. That's what this crap is. It's cheating, drawing maps so that people of a particular belief don't get fair representation.

[tom_paine]

10. To be fair, gerrymandering is nothing new

However, with all the "progress" in the Dark Sciences of Marketing, Personality Profiling, etc. gerrymandering can be done with deadly precision.

It isn't the gerrymandering that is particularly Evil (although it's an ugly practice that should have been eliminated a century ago -- districts should be determined by random lottery), but as usual, it's the twisted, "envelope-pushing", unprecedented, barely legal but entirely unethical, new uses to which the Bushevik have put it to use.

[central scrutinizer]

5. rogue motherfuckers

Does anybody doubt that these assholes are cruising around Iraq in their heavily armored Humvees terrorizing (yes - terrorizing) the populace? Then when the Iraqis get pissed, the "contractors" run and hide behind our brave, underpaid, underequipped troops. Forgive the Iraqis if they can't tell the difference and take out their anger on the first occupier they find. Not only does Bushco send our troops out with inadequate equipment, they allow these private shitheads to poke their sticks into a hornet's nest with no oversight or accountability. The troops should confiscate all of their equipment, then drive them into the heart of Fallujah and drop them off - kind of like a real-life Survivor.

[seemslikeadream]

9. Thanks

saved and ready to distribute


The legal position, as if it's of any import, is unclear. Not being regular soldiers, they don't qualify for the protection of the military parts of the Geneva Conventions. Not being unarmed civilians, they are not covered by the Fourth Convention relating to non-combatants, either. Nor could they be classified accurately as spies or intelligence agents. Perhaps the new category invented by the US for its prisoners of war from Afghanistan might be appropriate: Unlawful Combatants?

In almost every case, CP officers are ex-soldiers, trained at taxpayers' expense in the skills which governments are finding so valuable and which are being charged back to them at two to ten times the former rate. It's massively more expensive for governments to use private military companies than the conventional forces they have available, but then the political cost tends to be so much lower - private contractors killed in Iraq tend to attract far less media and public attention than conventional soldiers on active duty so the political cost is lower to policy makers and governments fighting a losing battle with an increasing percentage of voters who oppose the conflict.

Against that background, private military companies' involvement in future conflicts looks assured.

The legal position, as if it's of any import, is unclear. Not being regular soldiers, they don't qualify for the protection of the military parts of the Geneva Conventions. Not being unarmed civilians, they are not covered by the Fourth Convention relating to non-combatants, either. Nor could they be classified accurately as spies or intelligence agents. Perhaps the new category invented by the US for its prisoners of war from Afghanistan might be appropriate: Unlawful Combatants?

In almost every case, CP officers are ex-soldiers, trained at taxpayers' expense in the skills which governments are finding so valuable and which are being charged back to them at two to ten times the former rate. It's massively more expensive for governments to use private military companies than the conventional forces they have available, but then the political cost tends to be so much lower - private contractors killed in Iraq tend to attract far less media and public attention than conventional soldiers on active duty so the political cost is lower to policy makers and governments fighting a losing battle with an increasing percentage of voters who oppose the conflict.

Against that background, private military companies' involvement in future conflicts looks assured.