#6 Postby Persepone » Wed Aug 17, 2005 5:33 pm
As a civilian contractor you don't even have minimal protection afforded to military personnel.
Your life insurance is null and void because if you are killed over there it is an "act of war."
The contracting agencies (e.g. Haliburtun) are the ones making the money--not the poor people who go over as contractors. Yes, they do make what sounds like "good money"--thousands per month--but at what mental and physical cost?
The chances that a contractor will be kidnapped, tortured, killed nastily, seriously injured and permanently disabled in horrific ways are much better than for military personnel and those are pretty horrific... The odds are not good.
$10,000 a month sounds like good money--but realize that when all is said and done, it is only $120K/year and all you need is a 4-year college degree and a middle management job in IT for one of the large insurance companies or banks, etc. to make that kind of money. So if you want to earn that kind of money, go back to school, get that degree, and go to work for Bank of America or Fidelity or someone and within 5 years you'll be making that kind of money. And you are less likely to be missing arms, legs, eyes, other useful bits and parts. And no matter what happens, you are unlikely to have your unattached head on a pole on Arab TV stations.
I think it is utterly disgraceful that our soldiers over there do not have protections that we think they should have--Kevlar vests, properly armored vehicles, etc. etc. etc. And it is equally disgraceful to be sidestepping the rules on declared/undeclared wars by using the National Guard instead of regular army... they do not even have the basic protections regular soldiers do... If I could wave a magic wand and see that all our soldiers --regular and national guard--and contractors and everyone else could come home now--and safely--I'd do it in a heartbeat.
I think the soldiers are doing what is right--don't get me wrong--but I don't think that the government is supporting them as much as they could be and should be. Why don't they have the best protection and materials that they should? And I don't think that having all those civilian contracting houses sending people into harm's way like that is a good thing. It may sound like "good money" but there's a hitch to it somewhere...
Perhaps it is like being in the Ice Capades, etc. The pay sounds good to young skaters, etc. except that they pay their own travel expenses, etc. out of their paychecks so in the end they don't make what they expect to... Which is fine if presented properly "up front"--but it really isn't.
I guess this type of thing happens in all wars to some degree or another, but at least in wars prior to Vietnam, people who went as civilians (and yes there were a bunch in WWII, etc.) were told exactly what they were getting into and were not lured by huge sums of money...
Think long and hard before you do this.
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