As I said, I have worked with military and former military people all my life. And you say I'm a "silly man" for not believing anti-American, pacifistic attacks against them? The very nature of pacifism is silly. I would use a stronger word to describe anti-Americans. And I note once again, once again, still and always, never without break attacks against American coupled by no, none, zero, NONE against the most vile entity in the world today, Islamism. It is their firm belief that infidels should be killed. Murder is part of their religion and you attack those defending state department officials against them? That is much worse than silly. Lawrence ------------Original Message------------ From: "Judith Evans" <judithevans1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Date: Wed, Sep-19-2007 8:58 AM Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: The make up of security forces in Iraq I see, Lawrence, that your friend in Iraq, having actually known a lot of guys in security forces, knows what I know from reading the papers, part of which I said in a post yesterday. I avoided saying how good the Brits were thought to be, and also, giving the SAS's low opinion of their US counterparts' MO, because, well, that would have been rude. But as you opened the door, I'll say it. >the Leftists and anti-Americans attacking anything remotely American. > But the security forces in Iraq aren't completely American you are a very silly man, Lawrence. Blackwater gets attacked because it's so high profile. I assure you I am very happy indeed to attack any British security company there that behaves nefariously and I can assure you, without asking Mike, that he opposes mercenaries of any nationality. >"The Brit Army seems to be open to allowing one year >leave of absence for interested individuals to run off >and work for high pay The British armed forces have 'career break' provisions but the top security people are probably the ex-SAS and SBS people I talked about in my post yesterday Judy Evans, Cardiff ----- Original Message ----- From: Lawrence Helm To: Lit-Ideas Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 4:07 PM Subject: [lit-ideas] The make up of security forces in Iraq My friend in Iraq having actually known a lot of guys in security forces has, as one might expect, a different perspective than the Leftists and anti-Americans attacking anything remotely American. But the security forces in Iraq aren't completely American, so have a care: "Brits are the largest part of many of these companies, notably the British owned companies, but they have a reputation (based on performance) of being superbly professional. "The Brit Army seems to be open to allowing one year leave of absence for interested individuals to run off and work for high pay, then return to duty. The Australian government has been quoted in newspapers as complaining about the loss of people, more due to the small size of their pool of specops folks. "the biggest plus I saw in the Brits was staying focused on the job at hand without being distracted by news from home, personal interests, etc. the South Africans are even more so but their gov't has cracked down on their working in Iraq. There is still similar work all around the world however, to keep them employed in this type of work." Lawrence