If there is one issue that unites Left and Right in the United States today, it's respect for those who serve in the Armed Forces. Blackwater's mercenaries, on the other hand, pull down six-figure incomes and serve only their self-interest.
Our soldiers perform their duty with courage and discipline. But Blackwater's employees act like the Wild Bunch did when William Holden wasn't around. They endanger American troops with behavior that inflames local hostility toward the occupying forces. They claim exemption from military and civilian law, shoot Iraqi civilians, and run cars off the road without provocation.
Most importantly, Blackwater mercenaries aren't American soldiers. So what are they doing participating in Fleet Week Celebrations intended "to honor the men and women serving in the U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps"?
Lucas O'Connor reports on San Diego State's Fleet Week Football Classic in Calitics:
For at least the second year in a row (probably all three), the halftime show included an American flag being parachuted onto the field by members of a nation parachutist team...who happen to work for Blackwater and use parachutes emblazoned with the Blackwater logo.
Our citizen-based military is an essential part of who we are as a republic and a people. But this Administration uses mercenaries in unprecedented ways: to skirt military and civilian law, and to help its supporters and donors to get rich at public (and soldiers') expense. And while this Administration has cut corners on soldiers' health, safety, and pay, it has no problem letting Blackwater and other companies pocket fat profit margins from the same military budget.
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Patriotism isn't like professional sports or pop music. It shouldn't have a "corporate sponsor" - especially one that profits from the same conflicts that take the lives of our citizen-soldiers. So what, exactly, is the Fleet Week organizing group trying to accomplish? Should football fans salute the Blackwater logo along with the American flag? If not, why is it there?
(And which logo was used this year - the aggressive black one, or the more tranquil white one it adopted shortly after Blackwater used a Burson Marsteller subsidiary to soften its image?)
Blackwater's participation in a patriotic event like this one reflects badly on the event's organizers. They should send the mercenaries home from Fleet Week. Guns-for-hire have no part in a celebration of American heroism.
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Seems you and I are in the exact same stream of consciousness on this one. Agape.
I listened to him on C-Span and wow - Biden is extremely sick to death of Bush, but even more so than some of the bloggers here.
http://www.planforiraq.com/
Cows whinny, horses moo, up is down and sideways is straigt ahead...
Just can't get my head around it...
These Democrats would grovel at the feet of young Hitler.
Will these grovelers fight with us or continue to fight against us once Bush pulls his mask off and reveals he wants to be a full-blown mass-murderer of Hitlerian proportions?
... an American flag being parachuted onto the field by members of a nation parachutist team...who happen to work for Blackwater and use parachutes emblazoned with the Blackwater logo."
YES that is how it is here in San Diego, corporate control of everything, gung ho for war. USA! USA!
Somewhere along the way, we traded a country founded on Democratic principles for one where Capitalism is king. Now it seems, patrioti$m is represented by advertisements on everything from football jerseys to military parachutes.
Democracy will finally be deemed a success in Baghdad when there's a Disneyland park there, a Walmart on every corner and one Fast Food outlet per every 50 residents.
tcaughlan@fleetweeksandiego.org
Or, view the San Diego Fleet Week website:
http://www.fleetweeksandiego.org/index.html
Make it clear we do not support the inclusion of paid mercenaries in our celebration of those serving their country.
The only Blackwater employee I knew personally was in the Special Forces almost immediately prior to his employment in private security. I'm not sure he'd show up to a veteran's event in Blackwater duds, but there's not such a clear dividing line between Blackwater employees and soldiers.