The empire is not what it used to be, financially speaking. The Pentagon is cheap enough not to budget for armored vehicles, body armors, and other force protection gear for US soldiers in its main budget, counting on the supplemental: <http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/12/smart-guerrillas-vs-cheap-imperialists.html>. I very much doubt that Iraqi soldiers and policemen employed by Washington are paid well enough to make it worth sticking to it: <http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/11/30/news/police.html>. Take the money and run.
BTW, indigenous collaborators in any war against the foreign occupation -- from America to Vietnam to Palestine to Iraq -- have always been treated more harshly than foreign enemies. More of indigenous collaborators have died than foreign occupiers. Take, for instance, the Vietnam War, and compare US and ARVN casualties: <http://www.vietnamwall.org/casualty.html>. Nearly five times as many ARVN soldiers died than US soldiers did. -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>