Iraqis working for the US Live in Fear
AFP continues its excellent tradition of covering Iraq from the ground up(in this case the eastern city of Baqubah) with a fine piece about the fear in which Iraqis live who work for the Americans. Many translators have been killed, and others are getting death threats. Many feel forced to live on US military bases. Local municipal and provincial officials, most of them put into power by the Americans or their proxies, are also receiving threats.
The danger extends, of course, to US civilian contractors. This report says that 39 employees of Kellog, Brown and Root have been killed in Iraq. It isn’t forestalling down on their luck Americans from signing up, but it is a remarkable statistic.