An acquaintance of mine is a former police officer who does “law enforcement consulting” in Iraq, not sure which city or cities. He is paid $300,000 for 6 months ($150,000 up-front and $150,000 upon his return), but can only work one 6 month period per year. He technically has no authority when he is there and is not officially supposed to be armed, but he has said that he’s killed several people while providing “tactical field advice”. He’s done at least 4 stints since I’ve known him.
That’s awesome. “Tactical field advice” I like it.
Hmm. I guess it depends on the person. I would need to receive a lot more than $300,000 to kill people, and presumably experience a not insignificant probability of death.
300k per year and only working 6 months a year? Sign me up. Only problem is with most defense contractors such as those used by Blackwater is the big money work only lasts for a couple years then it’s usually pretty quiet.
That’s awesome, I wish I had that job.
Same here, but I’m not a former cop, so a little different frame of reference. Not sure if he’s still doing it or not. I knew him through his now ex-wife. She was not thrilled with the arrangement to begin with, although she had no problem spending the money, and was even less thrilled when she found pictures of his Iraqi girlfriend.
Add another 0 and I’ll buy a one way ticket.
Iraqui gf, that must be a hard nut to crack.
Black Swans post hit the nail on the head pretty well. It’s a love/hate thing. And with the US it is more of a hate/hate thing, And yep, he’s dead accurate about Indians getting all over sensitive about any criticism. I actually think this might be why things can be so so poor at times in India. Because people have gotten so good at “ignoring” problems or violently criticising anyone that points out a problem as some sort of "racist."It always come in this kind of petulant “if you don’t like it, then leave!” attitude. The guy in the Ku Klux Klan uniform shooting seikhs is the racist. I’m no racist. I was out all night with Indians last night getting leathered. Think I would do that with people that I disdain? Nah. That said, India has some interesting quirks which I love to observe and talk about. Some of these include: perfectly sane and not drugged up people taking shits in public, figuring out how to profit from everything, not tipping, oh and my latest favourite disliking Pakistan. I’ve heard that Basra isn’t all that bad. Its the places that will have a lot of Sunni populations that might be difficult. Basra should be pretty Shia. Being Indian you won’t stick out like a sore thumb like white guys do either.
Not able to figure out why the link was n’t opening in lappy, after each try it is going into endless loop of recovering tab. Couldn’t resist to see the comments thru ph. To my surprise, it worked. This opportunity is for a technical guy in Oil and Gas field and not for me. Iraq is heavily oil resources rich which has tempted all the top companies in Oil and Gas upstream to base their operations there. CT has rightly mentioned that we Indians are gypsy who can move anywhere in the world for earning their livelihoods. Probably the reason why now urbanization at its peak and all the farmers prefering to move metro cities for work as labor in the booming real estate and not trying their lucks on unprecedented monsoons. Having Iraq in his resume is the most tempting apart from the money being offered there. Yes, the earning potential is huge. You could easily own a flat in city like Mumbai in few months, I think CT will get this reference quickly as to how unaffordable housing has become in Mumbai. Basra is risky but relatively less risky as I outlined in my above posts. Every day there is a news of a horrondeous event in Iraq but mostly restricted to capital Bagdad and Kurdistan. IMO, the fite is against the ruling government and btn shia and sunnis. Iraqis also carry lot of hatred for white guys. Basra seems to be growing business hub so I think Iraqis also understand its importance if they were to grow which is not led them to carry out activities in there. Btn my friend has left for Basra now and let’s see how his experience moves forward.
Good for your friend. I’m glad to hear it. Better pay, good cv experience, etc is a fantastic thing. Some just don’t have the balls to go and do something a little bit riskier and difficult.
When I’ve moved to India everyone told me how dirty, dangerous, etc it is. And for the most part the stereotypes are all true. Yet I here I am, alive and well six years later. Tail risk! My quality of life is much higher than it would be if I were working in the US because of it. Relative to India, Iraq isn’t probably that much more dangerous. What’s goin on in Iraq is just a good old fashion ethnic/relgious economic turf war. The same kind of thing you see in India everday (for example these Assam riots last week).
In my time in Mumbai, India, I narrowly avoided being murdered by pakistani teenagers with AK’s and even had a bomb blow up outside of a train station two blocks away from my house while I was posting on this very forum.
So, there you go, more of the same in Iraq. Maybe a little bit worse, but that is probably more than offeset by the reduced risk of being killed by a train, a vehicle while crossing the street, a stampeding elephant, or some sort of terrible virus/bacteria.
Being Indian your buddy can probably grow a beard and fit right in over there in Basra. If you get kidnapped, pretend to be an urdu speaking pakistani. Just make sure to tell them that you are the right type of muslim (sunni/shia).
Not entirely true. If his friend is a Hindu and they insist on checking his foreskin, he could be in deep trouble. In a Hindu-Muslim clash in India, the foreskin is the first thing they look for before killing or letting a man go.
Really? To my knowledge, in these riots they target houses, and on voter lists, all the names are listed, which makes it easy to target Muslims/Hindus. I don’t think it would be necessary to look at foreskin.
Regarding terrorism, indeed India has the most terrorist attacks in the world after Iq/Afg, that being said, the really big attacks(Paki) are not nearly as common as in Iraq especially when you take into account size of the country.
Personally I would go for it. The only problem is what it would look like on your passport, having worked in Iraq…could that make it harder to obtain visas down the line, especially if you are brown skinned/muslim.
Agree. But they do the foreskin test on a random man on the street, trains, buses.
The passport is a valid concern though. I have a senior Danish colleague of Egyptian origin who grew up in Copenhagen and London. He doesn’t speak a word of Arabic and drinks like a fish. He was detained in Chicago airport for hours because he had been to India earlier in the year. They wanted to establish whether he had crossed the border into Pakistan to get some ‘training’.
Oh yeah - I havent seen any love chickentikka has for indians first of all 
I dont blame him, people are entitled to their opinions, but then people should also live by their opinions. Walk the talk as they say. No Indians want him in India as well
And I agree to what you say blackswan… Bollywood is about cheap feel good factor about living in India. And I dont deny staying and working here is an easy job and nor do I claim that I enjoy my life too much living here
I am one of those who say that the problem with the country is not the politicians but the attitude of the each individual which makes this country!
I think you just like saying foreskin. Now I said it, he he he.
I guess except the Indians that are paying him to live in India?
No, I don’t work for Indians. I employ them. The ones who I pay money to want me to stay.
You are probably right. Anytime I bed an Indian girl she says to me, “you’re Muslim?” (I’m American and Americans are usually circumcised)
^ Much to my surprise, circumcision has now become only a 50/50 proposition in the US. At least that’s what the articles I’ve been reading say, as my wife and I are trying to decide to cut or not cut our soon to be born son.