Stay safe, guys...
Listen:
Having been a contractor over there, you get paid VERY well (it’s called hazardous duty pay) and you go over there full well knowing the risks.
No one is forcing these guys to go.
The money is a huge draw.
So these folks should either quit complaining, or stay at home. either way, they should STFU.
I gotta love the way the NYT consistently skirts the Clinton contribution to 'downsizing' the military.
That said, Stay safe over there!
Two contractors from a company in my building were killed in Iraq. All of the initial coverage said it was the work of insurgents. After a long investigation though, it turns out that one of them blew the whistle on a corrupt official within the Iraqi Ministry of Defense. It appears this guy took out his mob-style revenge, and set things up to make it look like the work of insurgents. Point being that the situation in Iraq is so complex, it is impossible to generalize about the reasons the danger exists.
FWIW, there were a good number of civilian contractors in Vietnam. They made some multiple of what the pay for their specialty would be in the States and had little to spend it on in Vietnam.
More Americans are killed in the US by illegal aliens each year than are killed all over the world (including Iraq) by AQ types. Think you’ll see those numbers in the NYT?
Stay safe Allegra! Prayers for all of you!
I had mistakenly set my radio alarm clock to WNYC, the local NPR oracle.
This "news" came right after I heard some thing about how Britain now had two Prime Ministers and perhaps Mr. Blair should "turn in the keys to Number Ten six weeks early...". That was followed by this discourse between a couple of erudite gentleman:
"Tell me, what do you think would have happened if Al Gore had won the election? Certainly we'd have a more environmental president..."
"Ahem, well, actually, he did win..."
This is one sure way to get me out of bed and moving toward the "off" button in short order.