Contractor deaths in Iraq nearing 800

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4505235.html

Laboring in a war with no discernible front line, more than 770 civilian contractors have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion began in March 2003.

Statistics kept by the Labor Department indicate fatalities among civilian contractors working for American firms escalated rapidly late last year, with at least 301 dying in Iraq in 2006 — including 124 in the final three months.

U.S. military deaths totaled 818 during the year, the Defense Department has reported.

Despite the danger, job seekers continue to flood contractors' offices with résumés.

Some 165,000 prospective employees contacted Houston-based Halliburton Co.'s KBR last year about job opportunities in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, company officials said. KBR now has half a million résumés on file.

[gratuitous]

1. Gee, that's unfortunate

Let's see, between the mercenaries, and the folks doing jobs that our trained military personnel could and should be doing (Except we don't have enough of them, and besides how would Halliburton and KBR loot the Treasury?), am I really all that broken up about these guys buying it?

Yeah, sort of. But mostly no.

[Runcible Spoon]

2. "contractors"=dogs of war, mercenaries that are paid big bucks....

no tears here.

[zann725]

3. One of the things I learned in Sociology was Mercenary forces NEVER win against locals w/ Cause

Big bucks might lure the Mercenary, but he's not fighting from his "gut", or "passion" for a Cause. This was proven many times over throughout history...so my Sociology class taught.

Did I hear they don't teach Sociology anymore in high school? Wonder why...

[Vidar]

4. Good riddance, though I have some sympathy for their families.

[TheLastMohican]

5. Are these the armed contractors?

Or all of them put together? Because the truck drivers (also contractors) seem to loose a lot more people daily. I doubt the figure is 800.

[saigon68]

6. They all carry guns

The Big Mercs the $2,000.00 to $3,.000.00 a day, hired guns have some very expensive exotic hard ware

[Veronica.Franco]

7. They all wanna KILL ...

And I went up there, I said, "Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill, KILL, KILL." And I started jumpin up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL," and he started jumpin up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL." And the sargent came over, pinned a medal on me, sent me down the hall, said, "You're our boy." ~ Arlo Guthrie ...

[RamboLiberal]

8. No - that includes the truck drivers

Not all the contractors carry guns - in fact some of them like the truckers are prohibited from carrying guns. I don't feel for the damn armed mercenaries because I believe that this kind of job should be done by military or for protection of American dignataries by State Department government security force.

I do have sympathy for the unarmed ones - many are just trying to make a better living for their family. And I feel for the poor they import from other countries at slave wages and slave conditions.

[951-Riverside]

9. I have sympathy for thet truck drivers who are just trying to make an honest living but

I hope those Blackwater thugs suffered greatly before they died.

[IndianaGreen]

10. I have conflicted emotions about contractors

Some clearly fall into the definition of mercenaries, the sort idolized by publications such as Soldier of Fortune. These are scum that have no protection under international law, and rightly so. They are the American version of the French Foreign Legion!

Most of our contractors in Iraq are not soldiers of fortune, but people that went to Iraq in order to get their families out of difficult financial situation. They were seduced by the money offered to them by the military-industrial complex. Their jobs range from cooks and truck drivers, to electrical engineers.

When it comes to contractors, I feel nothing for the former, but I feel pity for the latter.

[haele]

11. What's scary is the number of resumes for those jobs...

More than half a million on file just for Halliburton and KBR - when 6 years ago, you might see at most ten or so thousand for work like that spread between those companies and most of their other American competitors a year. They don't usually keep people on file for more than nine months to a year unless they are in the middle of a long contract proposal that can take over a year or so to win and the applicants are critical for the proposal.
The majority of the applications are probably for support jobs that either don't pay much ($15 to $20 hourly with bennies) or are on "contract" work where the worker has to carry his or her own benefits. What might seem good - $25 or $30 "an hour" (or $45K - $80K a year) with no bennies rapidly becomes a little over $10 an hour if you have to send the money home and pay for benefits for your family, including life insurance on you on your own.
Not to mention the state and federal tax bite for working overseas and having the money sent back to the US instead of spending most of it there.
Working overseas as a contractor holds traps that the average person who's main work experience has been local can easily fall into.

This article tells me some very bad things about the economy.

Haele

[mitchum]

12. Well, you could pay me to mourn for them

[annabanana]

13. ! good one !. . . . . eom