U.S. general: Many insurgents in Iraq paid

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http://www.nola.com/newsflash/iraq/index.ssf?/base/politics-7/1119364172285680.xml&storylist=iraq

U.S. general: Many insurgents in Iraq paid
6/21/2005, 9:47 a.m. CT
By JOHN J. LUMPKIN
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Many attacks against U.S. and other forces in Iraq are carried out by people whom insurgent leaders pay $150 for setting a bomb and more for other types of assaults, a top American general said Tuesday

Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, commander of the Multinational Corps in Iraq, said the insurgency is neither growing nor shrinking despite U.S. efforts to combat it. He also expressed hope that a functioning Iraqi political system would lead to a reduction in violence and allow significant numbers of American troops to come home next year.

Someone setting a single remote-control bomb or mine often earns at least $150, Vines said in a teleconference from Iraq with reporters at the Pentagon, citing interviews with captured insurgents. He said other attackers can be paid hundreds of dollars more, even indicating that suicide bombers may be paid.

"I mean, how much do you pay someone who's going to murder some other people when they kill themselves?" he said

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Explain that. I guess it isn't a career move after all.

Insurgents got paid. Is that the story?

How is that different from Iraqi police geting paid, American soldiers getting paid, Blackwater mercenaries getting paid, and the puppet government in Iraq getting paid?

Come on, join the game, take a side, sell your soul, get paid. Everyone understands the language of money - it speaks to the greedy little bastard in us all. I too kind of missed the point of this article. Is the American military surprised that Iraqi's ("insurgents", whatever you want to call them) want to get paid too?

That the insurgents gets more bang for their bucks than the us gets for the millions that they spend and offer in reward money.

They offer what 20??....30?? million for one guy and get no takers, but the insurgents offer $150 bucks and have guys standing in line to blow themselves up resulting in multiple hits???

If they ask themselves why this is, they would probably come to the conclusion that these folks don't want them there.

But they won't ask because they already know what the answer is and they don't want others to hear it.
After all, it's not their kids getting blown up, IT'S YOURS, so why should they pollute their beautiful minds with mere death and destruction?

bonuses to new recruits in addition to their regular Army pay. So what's the point here?

We don't even want to "go there" in terms of how much our private mercenaries make.

And mercenaries are paid a hell of a lot more. Since when does getting paid for something de-legitimize an activity in the eyes of the U.S. government or society?

hiring these guys instead of the overpriced people we got.

Let's see. $250 billion dollars divided by 25 million Iraqis equals $10,000 dollars per Iraqi man woman and child spent by the US so far for what?

And that doesn't include the lifetime of healthcare costs for our 13000 to 14000 thousand severly injured troops (so far)

Yep, we are getting shafted on this deal for sure.

hmmmmmm, I guess I shouldn't because everyone else already did

with that CNN report on finding the insurgent's "torture rooms".

Don't you just love the free enterprise system?
What enterpreneurial spirit these Iraqis show.
:sarcasm:
:banghead::banghead:

=="So we believe that this insurgency is driven in large measure by money,"==

I think this is BS but the truth finally comes out about the POS*'s cabal. He just got the words mixed up. Insert *war in place of insurgency.

So, the insurgents will magically go away when their payments cease. Riiiiiiiiiiight.