| Now that's taking care of two problems at once! |
Recruiters working for U.S. contractors are hiring former Colombian soldiers — and luring away active-duty ones — for security jobs in Iraq, according to a former army officer who met with the recruiters. Colombia is a member of President Bush's "coalition of the willing" in Iraq, although it hasn't sent any troops. Its troops instead are battling a 40-year-old Marxist insurgency with U.S. aid on its own turf. But now, instead of Colombian troops on the ground in Iraq, former Colombian soldiers are going as contractors — and earning up to $8,000 monthly.
| That's some fairly heavy scratch... |
Efforts have been made in several Latin American countries to recruit contractors for Iraq, but Colombia's conflict, pitting leftist rebels against right-wing paramilitaries, presents special complications. The recruitment drive here comes as the outlawed paramilitary groups are demobilizing. Suddenly the fighters — many of them former Colombian army soldiers — are finding themselves out of work after waging a dirty war of massacres and assassinations against rebels and their suspected collaborators.
| They should feel right at home in Mosul and the Triange of Death. Send a few to Ramadi, too... |
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