re: #86 darthstar

I think Markos was kidding…and the mercenaries killed in Iraq are still dead.

Serious question: I know we pulled most of our 150,000 troops out of Iraq, but what about the 30,000 professional ‘contractors’ who worked for Blackwhatever/Xe? Are they still pulling in 20-30K a month doing ‘security’ work?

Blackwater (now Academie) got booted, but we still have at least 2,500 contractors there teaching the Iraqi Army ans some other protecting the civil programs still in operation. The Iraqi desire to get rid of non-trainer contractors (though understandable) is most of why we’ve cut back no civilian aid to Iraq: The security contractors are needed to protect the accountants and oversight people who ensure that such aid is not stolen.