California Army National Guard troops charged unauthorized, off-the-books “rent” to Iraqi-owned businesses inside Baghdad’s Green Zone in Iraq to raise money for a “soldier’s fund,” military officials and sources within the troops’ battalion said Friday.
Army officials say the total amount was $4,000, but troops in the battalion have said the scheme raised more than $30,000.
Several soldiers have called the rental arrangement “extortion,” but Army officials insist that the word is not an accurate description of the relationship between the soldiers and the vendors.
Sure sounds like extortion to me. US troops as Mafia. “Why do they hate us, oh why do they hate us?”