wow, between this and a chat I was having with doc... I am sooooooo depressed. this is totally insane. This goes back to one of your posts 1-2 months ago. we need to start talking, screaming about withdrawing the contractors. NOW. that way, as you said before we get to say withdrawal over and over again... AND get these guns for hire out of there. make them stop making the sit. worse.
back to thinking about white hots and watermelon, before i throw myself off of something high in despair.
*tlg
In Darfur they would be called "paramilitary"
But, but, but, hasn't Bushco been telling us for years that privatizing public functions yields more efficiency at lower cost? Maybe not so much.
Not to worry though, I'm positive that Blackstone, Custer Battles, et al will quietly go out of business when the Iraq war is settled and they'll be sure to transition all of their employees to peaceful pursuits. It's inconceivable that these companies would move to hiring out to the highest bidders world wide - isn't it?
My understanding is that mercenary pay in Iraq is about $ 100,000 USD / person / year. Suppose that with burden (medical, food, air transport) that's $ 150 K USD / person / year cost to the contractor. That amounts to $ 27 billion per year just for salaries + burden. Since we (the US taxpayer - none of these mercenaries work for charity) pay that, plus overhead, fees and contractor profits, that means we are paying at least $ 50 billion per year for mercenaries.
This is close to the "Supplemental" funds required for Iraq - about $ 60 Billion USD in 2006. I have a sneaking feeling that ALL of the Supplementals were, in fact, going to pay mercenaries, as that is one expense that requries cash.
Based on these numbers, the quickest way for Congress to get up out of Iraq would undoubtedly be to forbid payments to mercenaries.
These fuckers will be contributing to violent crime, both individual and organized, for the next twenty to thirty years.
Happy Fucking 4th of July....
You're right, Hub. It has to stop.
But all we can stop now, is our participation in, and sustaining of it. It, of course, has it's own ferocious momentum.
And we can't even do that, yet.
Because the republicans; the stupid, cowardly, bloodyhanded, turds, who are almost entirely responsible for it, won't help us start the troop withdrawals which will inevitably force the mercs to leave, too.
Instead they want to play the "chicken" game.
They say:
"Just how angry and how guilty ARE you guys, about the mayhem, the carnage, that WE created, using levels of bullshit and lies that would give Joseph Goebbels a hard-on that a cat couldn't scratch?
Are you outraged enough to put only YOUR names on any legislation that would FORCE bush to start withdrawing our forces, while we, the manufacturers, owners, and
operators of this lunacy machine, do nothing except sit back and sharpen our "stab in the back!" machetes?
Are you outraged enough to start forcing those withdrawals with only YOUR names on the Parental-Responsiblity-certificate-for-
Rosemary's-Baby bloodbath that is likely to follow? And for all of the rest of the ensuing problems?
Because, if you are; then, led by Karl Rove, we will dance naked and copulate like horny, delerious, pagans, on the white house lawn, for the joy of your releasing OUR balls out of the responsibilty 'nad-vise, for what's coming down the road in Iraq, as YOU climb up on the bench, and insert your own, while telling us to "have a crank"."
So. Guys. Cynically, and probably controversially, I say back:
"Fine. We can wait. Let's see whose numbers can drop the lowest. Let's see how you guys like having a president and his petro-turds dripping innocent blood from every square inch of their bodies.
The american people are gagging on your koolaid, and spitting it back in your faces. You're 17 months from an election that has a very good chance of turning your party into a political irrelevance.
You want to play "chicken"?
Our rooster has 14 inch curare-tipped spurs, motherfuckers: his name is "Reality-bird", and he's got moves that make Jet Li look like Mr. Rodgers. If you think WE are going to cut you down from that tree limb that you climbed out on and jumped off, while we begged you not to do it, think again, assholes.
"Twist in the wind" is becoming YOUR national anthem. We'll whistle the tune, while we watch you, and your faces turn as purple as that rancid shit you're STILL trying to get us to drink. :o)"
I LIKED seeing Richard Lugar tapdance over to the gangplank, look down it, and say: "Naaahhh, not just yet...but soon..." You go, Rich. Those high-teens approval ratings are just around the corner. :o)
This is going to get like the Rodeo "Poker Game" where they get four cowboys to sit at a table in the middle of the arena and pretend to play cards while they release a pissed off bull at the other end.
The last "sportsman" to stay in his chair, gets a hundred bucks. SOMEBODY gets flicked into the air like a dried booger.
As cyinical as it is to say it, I'm
willing to play this game. In fact, I don't think we've got a choice.
It will also give us a chance to see which of the dem candidates has the courage to be the first to say:
"You folks want "cyinical"? Our military in Iraq is being used for one thing: to try to cover george bush and the GOP's asses long enough to give them time to get out of town and hand US the bloody, flaming, bag of shit.
That's cyinical."
I think he, or she, could pick up some votes, by saying it. He'd get mine.
When will they show up here?
Tanbark,
That was pretty damn well-said!!!
Tanbark's right.
Molly Ivins used a down-home example to illustrate the same basic point: If a dog takes to killing chickens, what you do is tie one of the dead chickens around the dog's neck and just let it hang there and stink and draw flies and rot off. That dog will not kill any more chickens.
The current Assministration is a dead chicken around the necks of the Bu$hco/GOP voters and the dipshits who couldn't be bothered to get off their sorry, lazy asses and vote at all. Let's hope that in the next election they will prove to be at least as intelligent as that repentant dog.
It's terrible that so many more of our people will come home dead or maimed [physically and/or mentally] because we who voted against the Gang Of Pirates don't have the power to stop them yet, but at least we have the grim, cold comfort that it isn't OUR fault.
we're going to have to spread the word further every way we can, push the groundswell of sane public opinion to protest in larger numbers. and it has to be soon, since as you so eloquently point out, Hubris, this shit has to stop. Never mind that it should never have started from the get go.
I always thought 'Roland' was a relic of a time gone by...
So without the mercs, there would pretty much have to be a draft to maintain the occupation of Iraq; either that, or the US would have to abandon entirely a great many of its troop commitments elsewhere (South Korea, for instance).
Congress should just defund the contractors. I think they have more than enough evidence to justify it by saying they're bilking us.
That would force the administration to actually increase the size of the military itself so they could pick up the slack, which won't happen and the troops will be withdrawn because not enough Americans want to participate in the war.
I think it's critically important that Blackwater et al are defunded and hopefully pushed into bankruptcy. It would probably be pretty easy as the US gov't is almost certainly their largest client by far. Bandar Bush *might* keep them afloat, but it's worth a try. In the event that they do go bankrupt, hopefully someone in the gov't will make sure they don't walk off with all of their weaponry or simply sell it on the open market.
Private Military Contractors are part of a Republican-sponsored wealth redistribution scheme, anyway. Bu$hCo let their friends/contributors suck off the teat of the DoD and those friends and contributors make sure to kick some money to the GOP. A nice circle of corruption.
remember when Republicans used to rail against wealth redistribution schemes? I wonder when their moronic base will catch on?
It's a feature, not a bug. There's a lot of money to be made in the money that's being made. Just sayin'.
It's a feature, not a bug. There's a lot of money to be made in the money that's being made. Just sayin'.
That’s the truth, never forget that for every $100k a yr ex-seal there are 500 $30k a yr foreign mercs who are being charged at $200k a year.
As Dave said at 11:59 am, all those mercenaries will be coming home. Will the regular army be strong enough, the first few years after Iraq, to fight off a coup by the mercs?
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