A Contractor in Iraq Says Soldiers Unfit (We're going to lose and hard)

[Barrett808]

Guest Column: A Contractor in Iraq Says Soldiers Unfit
By Frank Harris
07.21.2005

I am one of the U.S. contractors working in Iraq making the big bucks. Personally, I have not run into any animosity between contractors and U.S. Army or Air Force personnel. Most Army folks I talk to just want to get out, officer and enlisted, and get a job with us.

I had read some of the letters Army people have written about contractors just wanting the money, anything for the buck, no patriotism, etc. What a load of garbage. They are just green with envy. Why? I will tell you.

I did 20 years in the shameful disaster called the U.S. Army, retiring last year as soon as I was eligible. I did seven years in the regular Army, then did 13 years as an 18B/D, Special Forces Weapons, then as a medical sergeant. I had once loved the Army, but the Army turned into a welfare system for the dregs of American society. I see the Army over here In Iraq and I want to vomit.

We are going to lose this fiasco and hard. I see Army people here in a combat zone woefully unprepared for what they face. I see women who can't pull the charging handle back on an M2 .50-cal., yet are up in the turret of a Humvee. I see self-serving officers and idiot lobotomized sergeants-major having troops starch uniforms in this 120+ heat. Doing police calls in the garbage dump called Iraq. Soldiers carrying their weapons unloaded, wherever they go on base with no ammunition, yet having to clear these weapons upon entering any building, constantly. Why? I see female troops lugging the M-249 SAW with obviously great difficulty.

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http://www.sftt.org/main.cfm?actionId=globalShowStaticContent&screenKey=cmpDefense&htmlCategoryID=30&htmlId=3125

[tk2kewl]

1. This guy sounds like a complete asshole

[bemildred]

4. Puckered real tight, too. nt

[pocket]

2. support our "dregs of American society" ?

not that catchy.

[skip fox]

3. Yes, I'd stay away from this guy. He might actually think he's

right, but view of ALL mankind comes through very clear in his tone.

Let him live in a hermitage reading Ambrose Bierce.

[Miss Chybil]

5. Well, I bet the Army's got his back

in their sites. Stupid, F*ck. Now, that's one sincerely UNpatriotic bastard. And, I bet he voted for Bush.

On edit: I forward it to the Editorial Director of the "Stars and Stripes" magazine. I think the soldiers ought to know who they're having to protect.

[HereSince1628]

6. You gotta blame the troops when you can't blame the leadership

How else does a conservative ape deal with this?

[geckosfeet]

7. Well you know what? I was in the AF 73 and it was a mess then.

Is it worse or the same?

The military always was and always will be messed up. The premise of a professional fighting force is based on antisocial, mercenary, and imperialist beliefs and assumptions. I have always felt that in order to accept the fact that a significant portion of your job is to efficiently kill people or to enable other to efficiently kill people, you will sacrifice some bits of sanity and rationality. Bottom line, you are a hired killer.

Killing someone to protect your country in time of war (even a real, justified and needed war) is still killing. It carries with it psychological traumas and emotional burdens.

Fact is, people join the service to:

1. Stay out of jail.
2. Get three squares a day and roof over their heads.
3. Cause they can't find a job anywhere else.
4. To get some practical training and education.
5. For the educational benefits once they get out (Which I hear have been reduced to a pittance.)
6. True, altruistic patriotism.
7. Homicidal pathology.

So, you get a mix of people who have just run out of choices cause of the cards they been dealt, and people who are trying to give themselves options.

To this shit head contractor who wrote that letter: The soldiers aren't green with envy you crap head. They are green cause they are wearing a uniform to protect your sorry blood sucking ass. You don't like seein' that woman struggling with a 75 pound weapon? Go help her fuck head.

[bemildred]

11. Bravo. Well said.

It is and always has been an ugly business, but it's useful to be ready and able to defend yourself.

[nookiemonster]

8. As a proud dreg of American society, I ask

"Where the fuck are you going to find your cannon fodder, asshat?"

Yeah, the young Republicans are just filling those quotas, aren't they?

:sarcasm:

[katusha]

9. it seems to me that this asshat

would not be making the big bucks as a private contractor if he had not been in said army for 20 years, what an ungrateful lout! seems he has chosen money over country.

[Dan]

10. Apparently, we don't like the messenger...

but the message is interesting.

Having left the service over thirty years ago....you could see certain trends even back then.

[bemildred]

12. Once we dumped the citizen-soldier idea, it was all downhill.

You don't defend an honest republic with hired employees.
(And, no, I do not mean to trash the regular army, far from it.
Every profession needs its professionals.)