Saturday, May 07, 2005
Why is this news?
Nicholas Berg died over a year ago.
He was a supposed "contractor" in Iraq.
I was in a Iraq for a year. I knew, there, many legitimate government contractors. Most of them lived on the base where I did.
Nicholas Berg was an American in Iraq. While he claimed to be a "contractor" in Iraq, the US government has NEVER acknowledged that he worked for them. ALSO, none of the major firms that are contractors for the US government in Iraq have EVER acknowledged that he worked for them.
If you read any of the news stories that came out around the time that he died, then you know, that he was kind a "handyman", working whereever he could to get by, and that he didn't have steady work for anyone. He did not live in any US compound, because he had never acquired a contracting job that would give him that privilege. He lived, on his own means, out on the local economy.
NOT ONLY THAT! But, the FBI offices in the country, not only warned him that what he was doing was dangerous. They informed him that they could not protect him.
It gets even better! On several occasions, they detained him and offered him a free ticket to the US, because of the danger that he was placing himself in, and that they could not protect him.
To recap:
Bozo goes to Iraq (war zone) as a "contractor", but he doesn't, actually, have a contract to work for anyone. Therefore, he doesn't have the right to live on a US compound. He is living out among the Iraqis, for good, or bad. He might as well be a tourist, in a war zone. The US authorities in the area give him several warnings that he is in danger, and that they, given their mission and resources, cannot protect him. They even go so far as to offer him free plane tickets home. Yet, Bozo refuses. He ignores multiple warnings of danger, and offers of FREE transport, not only away from danger, but home. And then, after all of this, Bozo finds out, in the worst way possible, that all of those warnings were true and that he should have taken the multiple offers to get out of harms way.
Conclusion:
Now, I am supposed to feel sorry for him, or relate to his father's anti-war sentiments?
Give me break.
War is not a place for tourists.
I'm sorry he died.
But, you know what? He doesn't deserve a memorial, a news story or whatever .... I take that back. He does deserve something. A Darwin Award.
He was a supposed "contractor" in Iraq.
I was in a Iraq for a year. I knew, there, many legitimate government contractors. Most of them lived on the base where I did.
Nicholas Berg was an American in Iraq. While he claimed to be a "contractor" in Iraq, the US government has NEVER acknowledged that he worked for them. ALSO, none of the major firms that are contractors for the US government in Iraq have EVER acknowledged that he worked for them.
If you read any of the news stories that came out around the time that he died, then you know, that he was kind a "handyman", working whereever he could to get by, and that he didn't have steady work for anyone. He did not live in any US compound, because he had never acquired a contracting job that would give him that privilege. He lived, on his own means, out on the local economy.
NOT ONLY THAT! But, the FBI offices in the country, not only warned him that what he was doing was dangerous. They informed him that they could not protect him.
It gets even better! On several occasions, they detained him and offered him a free ticket to the US, because of the danger that he was placing himself in, and that they could not protect him.
To recap:
Bozo goes to Iraq (war zone) as a "contractor", but he doesn't, actually, have a contract to work for anyone. Therefore, he doesn't have the right to live on a US compound. He is living out among the Iraqis, for good, or bad. He might as well be a tourist, in a war zone. The US authorities in the area give him several warnings that he is in danger, and that they, given their mission and resources, cannot protect him. They even go so far as to offer him free plane tickets home. Yet, Bozo refuses. He ignores multiple warnings of danger, and offers of FREE transport, not only away from danger, but home. And then, after all of this, Bozo finds out, in the worst way possible, that all of those warnings were true and that he should have taken the multiple offers to get out of harms way.
Conclusion:
Now, I am supposed to feel sorry for him, or relate to his father's anti-war sentiments?
Give me break.
War is not a place for tourists.
I'm sorry he died.
But, you know what? He doesn't deserve a memorial, a news story or whatever .... I take that back. He does deserve something. A Darwin Award.
