Why are there mercenaries (private contractors) in Iraq?

[Postman]

*To violate the Geneva Conventions at will without repercussions?

*To bilk the shit out of the US taxpayer (profiteering)?

*To provide "plausible deniability" for the Bush administration?

*Because if US soldiers were performing some of the more public "jobs" that these sick mo-fo's are doing (i.e. private body guard for Saheeb the US puppet) taxpayers, parents, political opposition back home might get upset at the "improper use" of a US G.I.?

anyone else got any ideas?...

[whalerider55]

1. un-ask the question....

why are we in Iraq?

whalerider

[paineinthearse]

2. see

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3914960&mesg_id=3914960

[KG]

3. all of the above.

this clusterfuck was ordered by, and staged for, the benefit of the defense industry.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. They can kill at will..... (link)

http://slate.msn.com/id/2098571

Hired Guns
What to do about military contractors run amok.
By Phillip Carter
Posted Friday, April 9, 2004, at 2:57 PM PT



Contractors: Life during wartime

The ambush and gruesome killing of four U.S. contractors in Fallujah, Iraq, has sparked some of the most intense combat since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime last spring. It has also brought the actions of private military contractors—hired by the U.S. government to provide extra manpower and firepower in Iraq—into sharp focus, with reports that they are fighting their own battles with their own weapons, helicopters, and intelligence networks.

[MichiganVote]

5. Short answer: Because of Dick Cheney and Rumsfeld

Do you think George Bush cares who shines his boots?

[Just Me]

6. Um, cause the military/energy corporacrats are in power?

Seems obvious to me,...but, maybe these guys' betray and exploit and abuse me and my family and my friends and my fellow Americans 'cause we deserve such exploitation and abuse, somehow, by our very existence, or something. :shrug: Maybe, gawd figures us deserving of such betrayal and abuse by these people. :shrug: Our predicament MUST BE OUR FA

[Porcupine]

7. Mercenaries get no quarter for a reason.

For centuries it has been well understood that mercenaries represented scum and evil. All the horrors of war are tripled when mercenary troops are allowed to exist in battle zones. Captured mercenaries have been executed by virtually all governments at one time or another. Our own government uses the "unlawful combatents" excuse to hold prisoners without trial. An arguement origianally used only for mercenaries or insurgent spies.

I believe the "contractors" in Iraq should expect the standard treatment. No more, no less.

[ThomWV]

8. So That Agency's Budgets, Other Than DOD's. Can Pay Their Due

It spreads some of the cost to untracable sources.

[Crunchy Frog]

9. Because if US or coalition soldiers were doing these jobs

there would be several hundred more official fatalities than there already are. Hundreds of these people have gotten killed over there, but they don't count as war fatalities and there deaths frequently aren't even reported, so it keeps the official death toll artificially depressed.

[Telly Savalas]

10. Because the cornerstone of conservative ideology...

is that government is evil and everything should be privatized. If they could have found a way that their buddies could profit by having every combatant in the war be an employee of a private firm, we wouldn't have an Army, Air Force, Navy, or Marines. They're working on it though.

[Karenina]

11. Kick!

:kick:

[cthrumatrix]

12. that pretty much sums it up

[rustydog]

13. Is this where the missing 8 billion $ went?