100 Years

I was reading this opinion piece ["One more year in Iraq, or 100?"] and the following stood out to me:

Long-term use of more than 50 bases in Iraq," plus immunity from Iraqi law for U.S. troops and contractors, "and a free hand to carry out arrests and conduct military activities in Iraq without consulting the Baghdad government.

There's potential for a story-within-a-story here. "immunity from Iraqi law for U.S. troops and contractors"??? I'm not being sarcastic, but posing a question - why the contractors? There has to be some logical reason that I'm missing. And surely this doesn't mean that the contractors can rape and murder innocent civilians - or each other - without consequence, right?

Furthermore, I'm trying to imagine what it would be like if some other country had these powers within the U.S. That's completely frightening.