US military paying insurgents for peace

[Orioni]

Long but interesting item under the title Military Officials Disagree on Impact of Surge.

 

Near the end of the article there is this surprising piece.

Creating a New Force

 

Some 70,000 former insurgents are now being paid $10 a day by the U.S. military. It costs about a quarter billion dollars a year.

 

It's a controversial strategy, and Macgregor warns that it's creating a parallel military force in Iraq that is made up almost entirely of Sunni Muslims.

 

"We need to understand that buying off your enemy is a good short-term solution to gain a respite from violence," he says, "but it's not a long-term solution to creating a legitimate political order inside a country that, quite frankly, is recovering from the worst sort of civil war."

What is the minimum wage in the US?

[Vocenae]

$7.50 an hour.

 

I'm not sure how that adds up in Pounds or Euros, but honestly I'm not suprised by this. I mean the whole thing was a mistake to begin with and now the military is just proving that it can't stand up against guerilla warfare any better now than it did in Vietnam.

 

Plus it's just making the situation worse. I wonder what all those insurgents will be buying? Certainly not groceries and comic books.

[Orioni]

What they could be buying with all that cash? How about more guns so they can ask for more money next time. I thought the US didn't deal with terrorists?

 

With all this fuss regarding the US navy and those little Iranian speedboats in the strait of Hormuz, something had me thinking. Methinks a little change of perspective could be good.

 

Turn the situation around and ask yourself: how would the US navy respond if the Iranian navy had a ship sailing around in the gulf of Mexico? Not even a nuclear submarine, just a standard cruiser. (Bush would be seen in camo and some fool at Fox News would already probably be talking about "Armageddon" already.)

 

Isn't it a little understandible that the Iranians are on edge with all those threats Bush is making? And I mean this from a military point of view. (I have no regard for Iran when it comes to civil liberties. Being GLBT in Teheran will get you killed.)

[Deltannia]

No way, $5.85. New York has higher but not even 7.50 yet, I think 7.15 or something like that. I remember for a long time the national one was 5.25..... so little.

 

And, unfortunately Orioni, I don't think Bush really cares, since he will never have to face that situation.

[Orioni]

No way, $5.85. New York has higher but not even 7.50 yet, I think 7.15 or something like that. I remember for a long time the national one was 5.25..... so little.

$5.85 = €3.97 = ?2.96. Oh dear.

 

Hope I can get a real job as webdesigner. The average wage is €40/hour ($60 or ?30).

[Tagmatium Rules]

$5.85 = ?3.97 = ?2.96. Oh dear.

 

Hope I can get a real job as webdesigner. The average wage is ?40/hour ($60 or ?30).

Bleedin' hell! That's tiny! Minimum wage here's damn near double that!

[Beautancus]

(I think) The government mandated a hike up to the $7.50 range nationally, and the states have been given the lee-way to work their way up to that point over (I think) the next few years- and most are going at in incrementally. It's like 6.50 in North Carolina right now, and progressing rather quickly. It's still miserably low. Thanks be to all the *might* be holy that I'm on salary and working for the state now. No need to worry about that pitifully small slave-wage.

Edited January 12, 2008 by Beautancus (see edit history)

[Haruspex]

I think minimum wage in Oregon right now is 7.90 an hour. Glad I'm not trying to live on that, cripes.

[Adaptus]

i'm on ?4.23 an hour

[Orioni]

Just to compare: Exxon Mobil made a $40 billion profit in 2007, from a total income of $347 billion.

 

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/for...2007/full_list/