If you believe the Pres. they're not Iraqi's they're Insurgents. Also, though they were civilians they were basicly guns for hire. They were fully armed and wearing body armor. They work for a company who was contracted to protect aid convoys. Minor details.

The fact is they were americans working in Iraq who were ambushed by a group, who apparently are well trained, then vanished. After the attack the people came in and did the hideous acts to the bodies.

It is disgusting and I feel for the families of these people.

They were civilians working for Blackwater Security escorting a shipment of food.

Blackwater Security is a company that hires mostly ex-military personnel for security work. The civilians they killed were not military (they weren't wearing uniforms) but they were far from unarmed.

Of course, that doesn't excuse what happened to them in the least.

As a side note, a friend of one of my fiancee's co-workers is believed to be involved with this company. My fiancee's friend hasn't heard from him in a little while, and she's concerned. If anybody sees a press release with names on it, let me know.

Also, Fallujah is a large city dominated by Sunnis. It is much less secular than the rest of Iraq, and thsoe living in this city had the most to lose when Saddam lost power.

Most Iraqis (those in Baghdad, as well as those in the north and south) aren't expected to react so violently. For that matter, many interviewed in Fallujah were upset because the desecration of the bodies was completely against Muslim beliefs.

Iraq is not a united country, and arguably never should have been. These are the actions of factions within Iraq, not the actions of Iraqis as a whole.

Also, though they were civilians they were basicly guns for hire. They were fully armed and wearing body armor.

Sort of like what I'll be doing in Iraq protecting the EOD techs. However that doesn't make us preferential targets over military :D . They were in their vehicles, it didn't appear they were driving down the street shooting at people along the way.

Well at any rate, I guess that's why they are paying 175k for the contractors to head over there for a year.

Time to get with the times then I's day. Leave the tribes and stone age behind folks. Climb out of your caves and stop grunting and hocking loogies when you talk.

Seriously though. Regardless of if they have a gun they are civillians and they were only watching Food. We aren't hiring mercs to go out and kill civilians. We have the marines to do that. :D

All I would be doing is making sure some dumbass with a bomb strapped to him doesn't walk up to an EOD tech and detonate, setting him and everything else within a mile off.

Pretty scarey to think these folks are out there trying to kill people who are just trying to help the people who are there to help the Iraqi people rebuild, stay alive.

This makes baby Jesus cry.

couple of ?'s

Sorry to ask a stupid one, but what is an EOD? In my biz, (advertising) that means End Of Day. As in when EVERYTHING is due.
and second, How did you get hooked with this contract? What company did you go through?

Best of luck if you go. Grow some eyes in the back of your head.

~Some Silly AC

Explosive Ordinance Disposal. Bomb squad.

I have connections. It isn't offered through my current company. A company called EODT is one that I know of that is offering this job.

The recently updated their website so things may be broken but they can be found at EODT.com

I guess this new contract enabled them to hire new web designers. The pages LOOK pretty but the fuckers don't know how to make sure everything works before they go live with it. Heh. Money well lost.

The Sunnis hated the War on Iraq and the change from an autocratic to a democratic system of government. Why? Saddam was a Sunni Muslim and treated fellow Sunnis as first class citizens, Shiites as second class citizens, even when Sunnis represent a minority in Iraq. So when Saddam was overthrown, the Sunnis lost their power, their priveleges.
Secondly, installing a secular government with proportional representation from the populations segments meant that the Sunnis would have a minority respresentation - less than they would like anyway. So their influence in Iraq has gone, they are now just as equal as everyone else (well thats the goal anyway) and therefore hate the Americans for the whole Iraq War.

Not all Iraqis hate the US though, a lot of them want change, but cannot stop the attacks because they, and their families would be killed by the terrorists if they were to act as an informant. It will take a long time ( I guess about 10 years) for things to truly settle down in terms of the social problems in Iraq - hopefully the next generation of Iraqis will be allowed free thought compared to the Iraqis now, who are brainwashed to hate.

A lot of people suggest that outside insurgents are instigating the violence. To some extent that is true - all it takes is one very persuasive speaker to convince Iraqis to go blow themselves up - and that most likely is the case: a person who claims to be a religious authority will recruit young, dumb Iraqis to act as their agents, while they themselves cowardly hide, spouting their crap from the shadows.

The US must not give up like they did in Somalia, Iraq is salvageable and would be the first stepping stone into democratising the Middle East. If Iraqi War is proved to be an achievement in the coming years, it will destabalise the autocrats power grip.

It is sad that the bodies were dragged through the streets, one would hope that once someone is killed, that would be the end of it - but no, we saw on TV how their bodies were mutilated, and how they were hung on that bridge - it was shocking but showed that there is much work to be done in Iraq.

One of our family friends works in Iraq as a electrical engineer for the US - he was in one of the hotels that were car bombed, but he survived. The money he makes is very good, but it is psychological torture to see death and destruction everyday, and this fear of where the next attack will take place. But hey! that is the risk one takes.

Maybe they should start using pig guts in bags as body armor and ship convoys filled with pig parts. It's working for the busses so far right? :D

While you are there you can hang out with Dave and his wife, build a paintball field and sue the local police department for "doing stuff that pisses me off."

I can't tell if you are pathetic or schitzo.

Dance!

Ahahahahahahaha

Do a little dance, make a little love, let's get down tonight..... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

I read somewhere that there have been more than twice as many civilian deaths as military deaths in Iraq. The government is not required to report these deaths so we don't hear about it that often. I think the only reason why this got publicized so much was the mutilation. I will search for the report and try to find those figures.

Otherwise I think this is horrible. It's unfortunate the Iraq's (insurgents) need to get a message across in this manor.

Question: Why do the Iraq's take their shoes off and beat bodies with them? Pick up a stick or something.

Think the shoe thing is an additional insult of some sorts. I remember seeing some guy do the same thing to a Saddam statue.

That would have pissed me off so much more than hitting these guys with a moccasin. I guess they don't realize that they are only passing a message to themselves and not us.

I'm surprised the media hasn't said what it represents. Here is some info on it [link] . From some eresearch I just did I came up with this. The "shoe slap" is the worst insult possible in that area. It comes from the idea that people have been walking all day in garbage and camel dung. The face is the primary target.

I concur... it is not just the act of slapping someone with it but even showing the bottom of one's shoes is considered to be the most reprehensible of insults. It is extremely disparaging! It would be the equivalent of calling someone boldly to his face.... you f**king N***er. It doesn't get any worse than that in Islam.

explosive ordinance disposal, and there is a company contracting in iraq called eod, technology. they are located about 8-15 miles southwest of Fallujah, and according to my daily phone calls, quite well protected by some of the best there are out there, but always at risk.

in arab culture, the bottom of the shoe and foot is the ultimate insult. if you really want to piss one off, any raghead will do, have a woman show them the bottom of her foot!!