When someone gives you lemons, you make lemonade, right?
And so it goes in Freedom Land of Iraq, where for many, now out from under the heels of Islamic State, the Iraqi people have only to clear out all the bombs, IEDs, and unexploded ordnance left everywhere they want to live by all sides in this ongoing clusterf*ck of foreign policy adventurism.
Despite the gazillions of dollars in U.S. aid, Iraq claims not to have the personnel to defuse all the explosives left behind once freedom reigns in places like Fallujah. So, concerned local citizens, who have been making defusing bombs for decades (handling explosives is an Olympic event in Iraq), smelled a business opportunity.
The fellows at NIQASH tell us the story of one Faleh al-Marsoumi, who got involved in the lucrative new trade because it was taking too long for authorities to come to his home and remove booby trapped explosives. He tried unsuccessfully to find someone to help him on the freelance market (there is no TaskRabbit franchise — yet — in Iraq.)
Unable to find anyone at a reasonable price, Marsoumi decided to do the work himself.
“I watched some videos on the Internet about how to remove IEDs,” he says. See the video, below, at around :55. That’s the wrong way to do it.
After clearing his own property, Marsoumi soon was helping out friends at their houses. Eventually he began charging for his services. He made so much money that he quit his day job and now focuses exclusively on IED disposal. He has even hired on two guys to assist him.
“There are three of us now working together and we charge some of the lowest prices in the market,” Marsoumi said.
Clearing a house costs between US$300 and US$700. Clearing a car of IEDs costs US$200.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
Mitch said...
1Brilliant business idea…. I do like the “Opps”…. Making/ defusing…
Wonder how many of them he placed???..(kind of like loading defective software)……Also wonder which “group” he’s giving the explosives to…
As a side thought…. Did not take them long to run out of explosives in other places… If they are now having to go back and salvage/ recycle them.
Guess since the report from the congresswoman in Hawaii might have had a bit to do with the funding cuts to the “rebels”.
M
04/17/17 8:48 AM | Comment Link
chuck said...
2Is this part of “War Is A Racket” jobs program?
04/17/17 9:53 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
3Chuck.
Pretty much.
M
04/17/17 11:28 AM | Comment Link
RICH BAUER said...
4Trump kept one promise: he united Russia and US. We both think he is the biggest threat to the world.
04/17/17 2:54 PM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
5Rich
You still make no sense.
M
04/17/17 3:30 PM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
6Rich.
Your Famous!!!!!
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-39592010
M
04/17/17 3:46 PM | Comment Link
chuck said...
7How are the caves in Afghan. doing that the CIA built with Bin Laden ? It’s all about jobs, jobs,etc.
04/18/17 7:48 AM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
8Pence to NK. “We won’t relent until you give up your nuclear weapons program”
NK to Pence. “We won’t relent until you give up your nukes and long distance stealth bombers.”
Is this a standoff that will result in millions “giving up” their lives so two jerk off leaders can strut and rut? Looks like it.
04/18/17 8:40 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
9John.
Notice the rhetoric fired up right after Trump and Xi met?
Trump apparently used trade as an angle to get Xi onboard to help solve Un.
Now… Hurry up and wait to see if it works….
If not….. Sunblock 9,000,000,000,000 will be in really high demand.
M
04/18/17 9:26 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
10John
Here you go….. A.bright side….
http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/04/17/general-jack-keane-china-could-assassinate-kim-jong-un-north-korean-leader-nuclear-threat
M
04/18/17 9:31 AM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
11Peter- no more snuff videos.
This was the first one I ever clicked on since I trusted your snarky comment thinking I’d just see a bunch of fools being singed. It was a snuff video- why publish it?
04/18/17 10:22 AM | Comment Link
RICH BAUER said...
12Speaking of snuff videos, the Facebook fiend got snuffed.
04/18/17 11:59 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
13Rich.
Damn…. And I thought that was you.
M
04/18/17 12:04 PM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
14Rich
Here’s your girl…. Feel really bad for both of you…. Really I do….
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/04/18/hillary-clinton-apologized-to-obama-on-election-night.html
M
04/18/17 12:10 PM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
15Yep…. This does so much for the anti-Trump crowd.
https://heatst.com/culture-wars/he-cracked-a-bottle-over-my-homies-head-antifa-accused-of-beating-up-other-protesters/
M
04/18/17 1:30 PM | Comment Link