IRAQI FAIRS

Law Enforcement Consultant – A New and Expanding Career Field

How many times have you turned on the news and heard stories about another far flung country such as Iraq, who’s police force was undergoing training in modern policing methods? Its happening more and more and who do you think is doing the training? What you may not know is that it is private contracting firms that are  employing law enforcement consultants to do the ground work and now you too can get on this new modern day gold rush.

An Expanding Need

As American and other western countries become more involved politically with so many of these undeveloped countries, one of their tasks is to insure that their police forces function in accordance with modern standards. This is because, with countries like the U.S. and England working in conjunction with these police forces, they must be sure that the citizenry that they come in contact with are treated in accordance with western policing standards.

More Employment Opportunities

With police departments across the U.S. now struggling to keep their own ranks filled, these private contractors are now having to offer extremely enticing wage and benefit packages to lure in law enforcement consultants to work for them. What this means for men and women across the U.S. that have completed their law enforcement training, is that they now have more employment options to chose from when deciding on where to work.

More Money and Better Jobs

Why should you choose to work for one of these private contractors rather than a U.S. police department upon completion of your law enforcement training? To begin with, they pay substantially more and thats not all. They also house you, feed you and provide plenty of vacation time as well. Also, the experience that is garnered by doing overseas law enforcement consulting work makes excellent resume material. This in turn gives you priority status, when you do finally return to the U.S. and begin to approach domestic police agencies for employment.

With the presidential election a mere thirty days away, an economy in crisis, and personal finance woes, international engagement fades in the background. The Iraq war, still a huge portion of the U.S. budget, takes a backseat to financial woes and the economy in current polls. Still, inquiring minds wonder, how much are we spending on the war in Iraq?

Answering a question such as how much are we spending on the war in Iraq requires sifting through dozens of supplemental funding bills passed over the past five years. Most of the money used to fund the wary comes from U.S. taxpayers. U.S. citizens contributed approximately $600 billion to the war effort as of June 2008. This breaks down to $12 billion dollars a month and a whopping $5,000 per second.

Deployment of one U.S. soldier for one year costs taxpayers near $390,000. The average U.S. soldier earns a salary of $54,000 per year. Although we are entering the sixth year of the Iraq war, costs continue to rise, with a $12.5 billion per month cost in 2008 as compared to a $4.4 billion per month cost in 2003. This gap may prove staggering, but the Washington continues to state a need for further spending, with President Bush requesting an additional $200 billion in supplemental funding to cover the war through the rest of this year.

Some may want further answers, such as how much are we spending on the war in Iraq for weapons, parts, and security? Much of the spending in Iraq, especially in 2008, is allocated to private security contractors. Once the U.S. removes its soldiers from the area, these contractors move in to support diplomats and agencies continuing the rebuilding effort. As the combat portion of the war drew to a close, the amount of funding to these organizations increased dramatically, to a total of $85 billion from 2003 to 2007, with the majority funded by the State Department.

Those that cite the Iraqi surplus now approaching $79 billion question the amount that the U.S. is spending for rebuilding and security in the country, especially when Iraq allocates a fraction of its budget to redevelopment.

Not all of taxpayer money is actually accounted for in the results of the war. Many machine parts, weapons, and other equipment never find their way to battle, grossing to about $1 billion in 2007. According to the Pentagon Inspector General, the majority of this loss is attributed to mismanagement of funds allocated to Iraqi security forces. Similarly, the Pentagon also reported that Haliburton overcharged the government approximately $1.4 billion during the same year, after receiving a total of $20 billion.

Asking responsible questions like how much are we spending on the war in Iraq is essential during an election year. As the contest for the presidency draws to a close, we must remember to demand answers to the tough questions.

When it comes to pulling out of Iraq because we did not find weapons of mass destruction I have to disagree. The fact of the matter is that regardless of weapons of mass destruction, Americans and several other countries realize how crazy quite a few of the people of that region really are. I have had many discussions about the matter. When I explain some things people wind up realizing why we almost have to stay there.

I start by telling people to go back to the beginning. When you go back to 911 and take it to now, then sum it up in a more simple manner, you may come up with a completely different outlook on the entire issue. I have a synopsis that no one has said publicly for whatever reason. The press could say it but has not. The president will not go where I am for political reasons. But no one else in the world may have thought of this scenario other than me, who knows.

I will start from the beginning. The first thing that happened was terrorists flew planes into targeted buildings in the United States. Then Osama Bin Laden claimed responsibility for the entire operation. Then we Americans got mad and George Bush ordered troops to attack Afghanistan. We attacked Afghanistan because that was where Osama was alleged to be hiding.

We won that war and took over Afghanistan. We won the war extremely quick. Very few of our soldiers died in the war in Afghanistan. Once we had won the land we told the soldiers to stop the offensive and began police action. We then helped the country to institute their own government and democratic society. (Side note: We captured Johnny Walker and accused him of being a traitor. Anyone realize how the United States started as country?)

We then catch wind that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. We send our soldiers over there and began our war on Iraq. It did not take us long and we had taken that entire country. It seemed to me, watching on T.V., that it took longer to cross the desert than to actually win the war. We again lost very few soldiers. We again told our soldiers to cease the killing and begin police action. We then helped Iraq form their very own democracy. We even located and captured their leader. We then helped in the assassination of Saddam Hussein.

Simply putting it we did what we wanted to who wanted when we wanted and with great ease and limited loss of soldiers lives. We then told our soldiers in both countries to begin police action. And that is what they all did. Then the U.S. soldiers became sitting ducks for suicides and other attacks. We have lost more soldiers in police action than we did in combat. That is a major reason why some people want us to pull out. The government is taking major heat from the people realizing the soldiers are dying while in police action. It brings back memories of past police actions.

The United States armed forces could have exterminated the entire population of both countries. All we had to do was tell our servicemen to continue killing. But we did not and we will never proceed in this manner. If America wished we could possibly exterminate the entire Middle East. But we do not want to. We want to get along but we don’t want them hijacking planes either.

Why do they continue to see us as the enemy even after we gave them back their country? What they wanted Saddam to continue his reign? That leaves one thing, they are not right in the head. They can not even realize that they are out of line. That is how lost they seem as a whole. The sane ones do not really try to help stop this insanity because they are outnumbered.

It is also said that we have not made any progress while it is so obvious we have. In case anybody has not realized, they have basically ran out of people to carry out suicide missions. That alone can be counted as progress. We have eliminated the vast majority of the craziest of citizens. It cost many American soldiers lives, but that is progress. They have resorted to many other types of attacks that the attacker gives himself up to the authorities to be punished by law. That should be put down as progress when you consider the attacker shows a will to live.

Meanwhile all countries with major media sources have allowed their citizens to watch what has happened. Do you actually think that the common people of all those countries actually think that the vast majority in the middle east is sane and civilized. The other countries that do not have the tools to read or see on t.v. are relent on word of mouth. I wonder what they think?

Quite simply the sane people are outnumbered by a bunch of barbarians who seem to have no idea what they are actually trying to accomplish. Do you know what they are trying to send as a message other than they believe that this is the Jihad. The people causing the most of these problems have not been able to relay what they are actually upset about. Do you know what they are upset about? That is why we have to stay.

I am from Michigan and Deorborn Michigan is one of the most Muslim populated cities in America, if not the most populated Muslim society in America. I have taken time to talk to former residents of Iraq to get their opinions. They tell me quite convincing that will never go back to the middle east to live after moving to America. The average former resident in the middle east estimates that they were only in America for a day or two when they realized how relaxed the people are.

They say that they were told of the many conflicts within America like with the whites and the blacks before coming to America. Then they generally say things, to the effect, that if that is a conflict, then there really is no major conflict in America. They explain by comparison to the Middle East. I asked them about culture shock and they reply things like there is no culture shock. They also explain that the only shock is how you can actually walk down the streets and not have to look over your shoulder.

There is a former resident of Iraq that co-owns a gas station that I frequent. He lived in Baghdad until he was 19 and has since lived in Michigan. I asked him if he had to choose between living in Iraq, before the war, and America now, which one would he pick. He started laughing and said here. He explained his laughter to me when he got done. He said that when Saddam was in charge everyone was in line. There were no troubles. Nobody talked bad about Saddam because you would be violently killed. He said it is way better here because you can voice your opinion.

Recently Mega Millions winning jackpot had grown to quite a large sum. The news stations were asking people what they would do if they won. An obvious Mid Easterner of descent said that she would go over there and get all her family and bring them back here. Wow! So much for the old theory of they are over here trying to make money to take back over there.

Many of the Middle Easterners in the Detroit metro areas people are second generation already. They threw large celebrations, with virtually no prior promotions, when we won the war in Iraq. Several former residents of Iraq have been asking the US government officials to do something over there. These same Iraqi-Americans believe we should stay until everything meshes. And so do I. But hey I’m nobody.