Fear of Fragging? Mercenaries Guard US Generals in Iraq.

[MrBenchley]

Somewhat buried in this excellent story of the weird "other war" being waged in Iraq is the news that US Generals on the ground there are being guarded, not by US troops, but by hired goons....

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/14/magazine/14PRIVATI.html

Why aren't more questions being asked about this?

[havocmom]

1. More likely, the generals are being held hostage by the corporations

that hired the goons. The US military has been kidnapped. Pay Halliburton and subsidiaries 9over and over again) or they will never see the light of day.

[MrBenchley]

2. Either way...it's a question that should be asked aloud

If its such a noble enterprise, why do our generals need to be guarded by hired thugs?

[havocmom]

5. I've been asking it for 2 years. My DEM Senator won't answer

And there is the problem

[MrBenchley]

11. Keep asking...

Presevere!

[havocmom]

15. Nope. In five years, not one on topic response to my letters.

Will look for someone else to back for Senator.

[Syncronaut Seven]

3. Fear of fragging, or sitting on the Generals to make sure they don't balk

or talk. I'm sure it's not the generals choice. Look for more to be replaced in the near future.

[parsnips]

4. I read it that they are guarding the Coalition Provisional Authority

officers since the CPA has no military force and Iraq has requested that private security companies be used to guard them instead of US troops to avoid more of an appearance of an occupation.

[gman16]

6. Private corporations

have hijacked the US Military.

[newyawker99]

19. Hi parsnips!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Dhalgren]

7. The generals don't trust their own soldiers - that's how fascism

works. That's why Hitler and his top thugs kept forming newer and more elite groups within the army/party/police.

Also, this means that the US actually has maybe 200,000 troops or more in Iraq - 25-50K mercs....:puke:

[MrBenchley]

12. Does sound like that, doesn't it?

[Botany]

8. Damn

Look where these "fellas" come from.

[MrBenchley]

13. You might recall

when the three "martyrs" were dragged from their cars, hung from a bridge and their bodies burned, the story quickly died...because one of the three "innocent Americans" turned out to be a South African white supremacist wanted for war crimes there....

[mopinko]

9. not just the military

theft with a pen is occurring at every level of government. like the leasing of rigged election machines. or here in chicago, the "woman owned" oops, mob owned janitorial company that cleans up after all the lovely festivals.

[leetrisck]

10. I think they are helping protect bush also

Know they did during the elections and think it has continued. Check out some of the pictures.

[seemslikeadream]

14. THE DOGS OF WAR

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=125&topic_id=9558

[PurityOfEssence]

16. The truth of the volunteer army

If you only pull resources from the desperate underclass and the marginally competent, you don't get the best.

[Jai4WKC08]

17. You don't know jack about the volunteer army

Desparate or not, that "underclass" is as competent as any college-educated elite.

They make DAMN fine soldiers, NCOs and officers. And you've got some nerve, sitting on your ass safe at home, disrespecting them.

The problem with the volunteer army is that the average voter has no stake in how they're used, so really doesn't give a shit. It's NOT because the volunteer army is less competent. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

[leetrisck]

18. So true

It's somebody else's military and somebody else's war.

[PurityOfEssence]

20. Point taken; I deserved that

My post was simplistic and derisive, and that's not the way to regard those who put their lives on the line for their country.

I should have couched it differently; it wasn't meant as elitist dismissal of those without some over-prized credential. It's more an issue of many being in there for the wrong reasons. If one is suckered in with hopes of education, training and advancement, one might not feel so much a part of a colonial war. That was more the gist of my ill-rendered post.

Why is this phenomenon occurring? Is it akin to the disaffection that conscripts feel for a cause they don't particularly agree with, like happened in Vietnam? Is it that there aren't enough true combat troops in the military?

Regardless, I should have been more measured.

[Jai4WKC08]

21. Thank you for reconsidering

I came from a fairly well-to-do family. Dad was a doctor, and I had college pretty much guarenteed. My husband, otoh, is from a working-class (union) family, had to work his own way thru college, and only joined up cuz they were about to draft him (it was 1968). But he was as good an officer as any college kid. So I'm a little touchy about it.

Also, in my 20+ years of service, I saw a helluva lot of damn fine soldiers who came in for the education and training opportunities, and stayed because it's an emotionally rewarding job. With the right leadership, that is.

We got lousy leadership at the top, and it filters down. By the policies that get implemented, by the military leaders who get selected for the important positions, by the missions that get assigned. And because there's such a thing as "command climate." Even the most senior officers are affected by what they get handed from above. I think that's the biggest problem today, the lack of leadership at the top.

Troops are smart. Even if they aren't well educated. They see what's happening on the ground, and they know bullshit when they see it. All the more so when their lives depend upon it.

I don't know much "first-hand" about the draft army, since there were only a small percentage left when I went on active duty in 1977. Obviously, I've read about it, and listened many hours to what my husband, and all the old NCOs I worked with had to say. But I expect people are people, and if confronted with the same circumstances, react similarly.