Yes, the Surge is so successful that the Army is taking its soldiers who worked in the supply chain and giving them rifles. So they need to hire contractors to do those jobs.
What's next: "All walking wounded, fall out and draw rifles."
Look at the bottom of the article: 129,000 private contractors in Iraq, so many that the Army is considering getting a private medical provider in the country to service them.
(Ayup: "Did you get pre-approval to have that sucking chest wound treated?")
160,000 of our troops, about 13,000 in the Coalition of the Willing (Bribed) and 129,000 in the Coalition of the Billing. Of course, you rarely hear about the latter number.
Of course, the latter number may go down since Blackwater is being kicked out of Iraq for being trigger-happy. Or so the Iraqi government claims. Guess we are going to see how "sovereign" Iraq is.
My bet: Not so much.
D’Oh-bama Drama
48 minutes ago
2 comments:
Actually, walking wounded being handed rifles and told to go back to the front is a typical day in Iraq today. If you aren't obviously disabled (i.e. missing a limb or face, or utterly unconcious), the culture of the Army and Uncle Sam's Misguided Children is such that you're back with your buddies as soon as you're capable of walking again. There's even been cases where soldiers with *casts* on a wrist or ankle due to broken bones have been sent back on patrol if it didn't interfere unduly with their ability to pull a trigger.
Sorry, don't have references handy, I just keep my eyes open for that sort of thing and have seen them going by for some time. As stretched as the military is, if you're wounded but still capable of walking, you're out there with your buddies in combat, period.
- Badtux the Military Penguin
Great. If we are sending the walking wounded back into combat, we are well and truly screwed.
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