Waxman: "State Department Is Acting As Blackwater's Enabler"

Tragically, I think you are absolutely right Esquire.

If you have not already seen it, everyone needs to see Cusack's interview with Klein on her book "The Shock Doctrine." Cheney and Company are operating from the Friedman school of corporate fascism, but take the immoral exploitation of tragedy to a whole new level by manufacturing tragedy and chaos to create an environment they can criminally exploit without any real risk of accountability.

This is 17 minutes, but an absolute must see interview:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-cusack/huffpost-exclusive-my-in_b_65990.html

There is still hope, but the danger of an unstoppable wave of fascism increases every day these traitors are allowed to strengthen their oligarchical rule and chip away at any democratic accountability and the rule of law.

The key to defeating these traitors is throughly exposing them (the best remedy to covert plans is to make them overt), and then for an informed People to stand together in firm unity against the fascist plans of our would-be rulers.

Fascism is evil, plain and simple, and the dark cloud of fascism simply cannot be allowed to engulf this great nation. The result would be a tragedy of historical proportions around the World as what happens in the U.S. affects ever person on this planet. Far too much is at stake to simply give in to the dark fantasies and boundless greed of Cheney and his twisted allies.

In hopes of a better future, Shalom to all.

lying Marxist dog, of the sixteen thousand plus missions performed by Blackwater, less than 1% involved the discharge of a firearm. Liar

Guards working in Iraq for Blackwater USA have shot innocent Iraqi civilians and have sought to cover up the incidents, sometimes with the help of the State Department, a report to a Congressional committee said today.
Do you believe the U.S. government in any way helped in the cover up of Blackwater reckless behavior? -----> http://www.youpolls.com/details.asp?pid=622
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I heard on NPR yesterday that the security workers who are employed by Blackwater make $1,000 per day! Imagine what those who run the company are making. Our soldiers are making - what? - $3,000 per month? This is how you choose to spend your YOUR tax money, bucko?! I am appalled. And the Bush administration can't even muster a decent G.I. Bill to save their souls.

Me? I choose to support the troops - not private firms that cost far too much and abuse our trust and that of the Iraqis.

Watch this to see what 9/11 and everything that has followed is about:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1981225573970187433

Thanks so much Striker5 for that informative blurb.

God Bless the Real Troops.

And fuck the mercenary murderers from Blackwater. Who authorized them? Why do they need blanket immunity from liability?

And ze pay is magnifique!!!

Zis is because zey are skilled with the spraying of ze bullets I sink.

Yep they're completely innocent. That's the reason the Iraqis want them out and the reasons for all the investigations.

Sheesh do you live in THIS world or a parallel universe with internet access through a portal?

There is no accountability. Soldiers can be held accountable under the UCMJ and Law of Armed Conflict. These "contractors" don't answer to military law, US criminal law (because they're not operating in the US) or international law. They are in a sense "unlawful combatents" which is what we would call an armed Iraqi civilian in a war zone.

The Sons of Liberty, George Washington & the Continental Army fought for FREE. There WAS no money. They fought for IDEALS. They fought for Liberty and to be free from King George and the Bank of England, not to SUPPORT the Bank of England , and, if you study International Finance, you better believe they are fighting for the Bank of England. Taxpayers DO pay for Blackwater's Health and Life Insurance. The Government pays the upfront money and Blackwater takes it and uses Taxpayer money to pay the Insurance Companies, saying THEY are paying the cost. Just a Verbal silght-of-hand. They got that much money because apparently somebody in the Company had some connection to Jeb Bush's wife. Period. War isn't the National Football League.
If it's not worth fighting for Free, it's not worth fighting for.

4) You however ignore other factors such as the effects of privatization of coercion - the power to compel non-contractually bound action, up to and including killing someone - which is (for many good reasons history has shown us) almost exclusively reserved to the government. You do mention the impact of such high salaries in preventing re-enlistment without even considering the possible impact of such high salaries on the initial enlistment rate and our ability to maintain any form of volunteer military. What about the political (Public relations if you will) effect on people around the world who watch our use of mercenaries? History is also full of bad consequences or unexpected consequences from their use.

I know many of the factors I raise cannot be easily reduced to a dollar and cents cost, and many are therefore tempted to ignore them or claim that they don't matter.
I believe they do. I for one would also like to see them openly discussed and weighed in a public forum before we 1) continue to spend what I believe (based on years of observation of government wasteful spending) will ultimately be more than we should have, eliminating any "cost efficiency" argument and 2) take actions that cost us even more in damage to our standing in the eyes of the world and our own body politic.

Two part reply:

Maybe you read my earlier posting, but either you didn't or you chose to ignore the "ignorant, conspiracy laden gibberish" of someone who asked a few questions about the use of such mercenaries. I did read your post and wonder:

1) Your source for your economics based argument that they are "cheaper and more efficient". Regarding "cheaper" -the simplistic reporting in the MSM indicates they are paid (and you admit the salary levels are indeed much greater) far more than our soldiers performing equivalent tasks. I have never seen any actual analysis of the full in cost. Another question " does your analysis consider the time value of money? When you start talking "long term contracts" you should. And not to get snippy, but most commentators argue that any government spending is wasteful and inefficient (as most analyses of military spending will show), so why should we believe in this case the government actually did a thorough financial analysis that wasn't simply "We need it now so buy it at whatever the cost"? Or to borrow a quote from a movie, that they didn"t follow the old government saw "Why buy one when you can get two for twice (or thrice) the price."

2) In the area of "efficiency", you offer no statistics to support that and in fact don"t even define the term, other than, we are left to assume as simple dollars and cents.

3) Unlike most supporters who use simple financial measures of efficiency and fail to acknowledge them, you DO allude to externalities (those costs " negative consequences of our actions that do not have a direct dollar out of pocket cost attached to them) such as civilians killed and make the unsupported claim that they commit less than the regular military. How do you know? Does that consider the difference between full on combat and their claimed more limited missions? Too many factors to discuss here, but I'd bet there is no data to compare with the same function performed by regular military troops so you again are assuming without support.

It's "too much bureaucracy"...

It's "cheaper"...

It's the "intelligence"...

Hell, tomorrow it will probably be Big Foot or Cthulhu.

HOW is it "too much bureaucracy"?

HOW is it "cheaper"?

HOW is it cheaper than paying them a soldier's salary and providing them healthcare?

WHY is a typical Blackwater employee making FOUR TIMES the amount of the Commander on the ground?

WHY and HOW is a mercenary mafia "good" for America and it's "moral values"?

WHAT is different in their training that can't be done with oversight and through the military?

These umbrella'd GOP excuses hold less water than a Army Corps levee in a poor district.

If you could get paid 2-4 times as much for doing the job you're already doing wouldn't you want to get paid more?

No. Because it would be wrong. There's a question of who's money is being spent to enable you to get your 2x to 4x more pay. It's not okay to just figure out a way to bamboozle the taxpayer out of billions of dollars just so you can make a bunch of loot.

Are you insane? Where did you ever learn such criminality? Do you really think you can just rationalize away any and all types of heinous and criminal acts?

Your fooling no one. This a boondoggle. A war crime. A disgusting perversion thought up by the neo-cons who lied us into Iraq in the first place. We know now what they are doing. This is the whole reason we're over there. To line "veteran law enforcement" cronies pockets.

Your defense of these devils is revolting and should horrify any American.