When Americans cannot live savely in the countryside there are unacknowledged problems. The 'party line' is that the people we want to liberate are afraid of the insurgents, rebels, terrorists, etc. and they would express their love for US if they could.

The reality is that those people are against US, they are the enemy, and we are not liberating them. We are fighting them, the entire population. It's their country, and they want us out, very much as we would want them out of our country.

Let's not be silly. Americans can wander around many places, but in Iraq and Afghanistan (and Vietnam) are not safe among those we are "liberating".

That's because we aren't liberating them. The population is against us. They may be pressured by 'terrorists', but they are pressured by US troops, too.

As far as mercenaries (so-called 'contractors') are concerned, leave them. They deserve whatever happens to them.