NationStates Jolt Archive


## ongoing Battle For Iraqi Hearts And Minds..

OceanDrive
17-02-2005, 05:46
Four men say they witnessed shooting
of unarmed civilians

There are new allegations that heavily armed private security contractors in Iraq are brutalizing Iraqi civilians. In an exclusive interview, four former security contractors told NBC News that they watched as innocent Iraqi civilians were fired upon, and one crushed by a truck.
...
On a mission on Nov. 8, escorting ammunition and equipment for the Iraqi army, they claim a Kurd guarding the convoy allegedly shot into a passenger car to clear a traffic jam.
...
Later, the convoy came upon two teenagers by the road. One allegedly was gunned down.

"The rear gunner in my vehicle shot him," says Colling. "Unarmed, walking kids."

In another traffic jam, they claim a Ford 350 pickup truck smashed into, then rolled up and over the back of a small sedan full of Iraqis.

"The front of the truck came down," says Craun. "I could see two children sitting in the back seat of that car with their eyes looking up at the axle as it came down and pulverized the back."
...
"It was chaos and carnage and destruction the whole day," says Craun.
...
Craun, in an e-mail two days later to a friend at the Pentagon, wrote: "I didn't want any part of an organization that deliberately murders children and innocent civilians."
OceanDrive
17-02-2005, 05:55
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6947745/
Niccolo Medici
17-02-2005, 05:57
I share my namesake's great distaste for Mercenaries. I can't STAND mercenaries. Lousy, private armies with no rules, no respect for the law, no reason to kill other than for the thrill of it and the money. Any worse and they'd be paid murderers, not soldiers. As it is they are the worst kind of soldier.

Why on earth this administration saw fit to hire mercenaries in Iraq was beyond my ability to understand. They do FAR more damage to us than to the insurgency anyway. They cost tons of money, when our budget belt is too tight as is, they've already been implicated in several scams and overcharging scandals (I'm not talking about Haliburton so much as other, smaller "private contractors"), not to mention a couple instances of brutality that I've heard of (I haven't confirmed many in Iraq, but Afganistan has seen a few)

Why the heck are Mercenaries seen as a good investment still? Every example of Merc forces has ended in defeat, betrayal, or the weakening of the Client.