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<DIV>I agree with you entirely. "Honoring" the civilian contractors, especially the Blackwater Security people, is ideologically similar to "honoring" Halliburton.</DIV>
<DIV>Like you, I don't neccessarily say so out loud because I, too, am not actually a signed & sealed member of VFP, just a dissident who happens to be a veteran.</DIV>
<DIV>On the other hand, we have to recognize that if Dick Cheney flew into Iraq to pick up a suitcase full of cash & the plane got shot down and he were killed, he would still get a state funeral and it would be incumbent upon us to mourn the sad waste of a human life dedicated to evil behavior and criminality.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>As the pharisees say "Hate the sin, but love the sinner."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>It is a bizarre position in which to find yourself: all life is equally sacred and the celebration & mourning is non-discriminatory, regardless of whether that individual used their time on earth for good or sin.</DIV>
<DIV>Personally, I find it acceptable to simply acknowledge the life & the loss, then walk away from the masturbatory recitations of "acheivements" in the same way that I can enjoy a holiday dinner and walk away from the gratuitous cakes, cookies and other junk "food".</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Randy</DIV>
<DIV><BR><BR><BR> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid">-----Original Message----- <BR>From: Ron and Kris Graham <GRAHAM2639@MINDSPRING.COM><BR>Sent: Dec 22, 2006 12:04 PM <BR>To: Discuss@paa-tx.org <BR>Subject: [PAA-Discuss] January 14 VFP Memorial and Civilian Contractors <BR><BR><ZZZHTML xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:st1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml"><ZZZHEAD><ZZZMETA content="text/html; charset=us-ascii" http-equiv="Content-Type"><ZZZMETA content="Microsoft Word 11 (filtered medium)" name="Generator"><ZZZ!--[IF !mso]>
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<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=black size=2><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">I had no idea the number of “civilian contractors” in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 /><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region> was anywhere near 100,000. I had an interesting and heartfelt discussion with a good friend of mine this morning and the topic of conversation turned to the VFP memorial that will be erected on January 14<SUP>th</SUP> for the 3000<SUP>th</SUP> U.S. military casualty, the 650,000+ Iraqi casualties and the civilian contractor casualties. This memorial was discussed in depth at the last VFP meeting. I am not a member of VFP although Ron is the treasurer of the <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Houston</st1:place></st1:City> Chapter. I did not agree with having a memorial for the civilian contractors, but I kept my mouth shut because I didn’t feel it was my place to say anything since I’m not a member of the group. I attend VFP meetings, because by and large, I agree with just about everything they do with the exception of including these civilian contractors in the memorial.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=black size=2><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=black size=2><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">I know that all these people are human beings like the rest of us, so I feel a little torn about feeling this way, however, these civilian contractors KNEW what they were getting into when the volunteered to go to Iraq. They KNEW it was a hotbed of murder and mayhem and yet they chose to go anyway because of the lure of BIG BUCKS. Civilian contractors are being paid many times what an ordinary <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> soldier would be paid for doing the jobs that typically soldiers would do. Many of these so called contractors are PAID MERCENARIES who are answerable to NO ONE. They can murder people at will and not be held accountable for it.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=black size=2><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=black size=2><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">I don’t know how the rest of you feel about having them included in a memorial, but I definitely have mixed feelings about it and am leaning toward being against it. Perhaps I should put those feelings aside and just go along with it since they are human beings and they did lose their lives in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region> or <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=black size=2><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=black size=2><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">I would be interested to know how everybody else feels about them being included in the VFP memorial.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=black size=2><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=black size=2><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'">Kris<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=black size=2><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=articletools style="TEXT-ALIGN: right" align=right><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The Shadow Army <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<H6><B><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=1><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 7.5pt">Posted on Dec 22, 20When debating troop levels in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region>, one ought not to forget the countless bodyguards, interpreters, truck drivers and mercenaries scattered around the country. Apparently not even Central Command has a firm grasp of just how many civilian contractors are employed in Iraq—a number that could be as high as <A title=100,000 href="http://barrylando.com/?p=98">100,000</A>. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></H6>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=center><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><IMG id=_x0000_i1029 height=4 src="cid:image001.gif@01C725C1.60014400" width=200 border=0><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><B><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Barry Lando:</SPAN></FONT></B> <o:p></o:p></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">What is striking about the current debate going on in Washington—whether to “surge” troops to Iraq and increasing the size of the U.S. Army—is that roughly 100,000 bodies are missing from the equation: the number of American forces in Iraq is not 140,000 but more like 240,000. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">What makes up the difference is the huge army of mercenaries—known these days as “private contractors.” </SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY><PRE>
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Randy Scott
"Taken For A Ride" available for viewing by any Houston group concerned with
public transit, peak oil, corporate lobby groups.
<a href="http://www.newday.com/films/Taken_for_a_Ride.html">http://www.newday.com/films/Taken_for_a_Ride.html</A> Documentary describes how GM, oil
companies, tire makers & highway builders conspired to destroy public transit in American cities.
Contact me to arrange a viewing for your group.</PRE>