Sense from Mr. Conspiracy-Theory

Today during the final hour of Political Science 452, Islam and Politics, outspoken Mr. Conspiracy-Theory actually said something sensible. I think. I've heard so much far-fetched hogwash from him that I may have been sensitized to his ramblings.
Anyway, he said that one of the things that could have helped America's position in Iraq would be to hire Iraqi contractors to build roads and Iraqi cooks to cook Iraqi-grown food for the American soldiers. Hiring American contractors to build roads in Iraq was not only very expensive for the United States because American contractors have to be paid mucho dinero, housed, and protected, but hiring Iraqis would have created some jobs for the people who are now planting roadside bombs for money instead. Likewise, all of the American military's food is shipped into Iraq at great expense (Mr. Conspiracy-Theory said each soldier's meal costs about $30, even though it's just normal gross cafeteria food) and is cooked and served by Bangledeshis. Mr. Conspiracy-Theory has been in Iraq as a soldier, so I think he knows about this. Hiring Iraqis to run the cafeterias and other base operations would have created more much-needed jobs in Iraq. More jobs in Iraq mean less frustrated unemployed people joining the insurgency. In fact, hiring locals to take care of American soldiers' temporal needs is a long-standing tradition in the US military.
We say we want the Iraqis to fight their battles, so why shouldn't they build their roads?