The role of private contractors in Iraq

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American troops are being abused with extended tours of duty, over-reliance on the National Guard and recall to duty after their original tours have been completed. And they're all being paid nominal military salaries for this abuse.

Meanwhile, how much are U.S. taxpayers shelling out for these American and foreign contractors? What is their average salary compared to that of an American soldier?

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Who Would Jesus Bomb? The Brookings Insitution according to watergate felon and Evangelical hot pack Chuck Colson

n its cover story earlier this year, Time, a publication that cast doubts about Colson's post-Watergate/pre-prison religious conversion three decades ago, named him one of "The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals In America." Under the headline, "Reborn and Rehabilitated," Time pointed out that Colson, the man who once advocated bombing the Brookings Institution, had found religion and founded Prison Fellowship Ministries "a $50 million organization that operates in all 50 states and 110 countries." The magazine also noted that Colson's "campaign for humane prison conditions helped define compassionate conservatism and served as a model for the faith-based initiatives that Bush favors."

On May 19, the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Calvin Theological Seminary announced the Charles W. Colson Presidential Chair, which will fund the president's office of the Christian Reformed Church seminary for 10 years. According to the Grand Rapids Press, the $1.5 needed for the endowment came from a grant by the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation. While neither the Devos Foundation nor the seminary would divulge the exact amount given, the Rev. Cornelius Planting Jr., the seminary's president, told the local newspaper that it was the largest single gift the seminary had ever been given.