"Blackwater and me"

A timely and very well-written essay in the Chicago Tribune: "Blackwater and me: A love story," by Robert Bateman.

[HT: Loren]

Comments

[Squidink]

That's a nice read. My favorite line: "Every time they kill innocent civilians, or wound them, they make whole families of new enemies."

EXACTLY. Every calculated act of violence expands hatred and bitterness exponentially. Like a chrysanthemum.

[chowderhead]

Blackwater's hail of bullets defense, and the military shift to the use of increased bombing are strong indicators that the war against insurgency is failing.

[David Grenier]

What amazes me is that for a long time, Americans have had this idea that only *we* would/could/should seek revenge for the death of our loved ones. We wanted revenge for 9/11, but only terrorist evildoers would want to take revenge for American soldiers killing their families, friends, and countrymen.

Also, did you see that Blackwater has been allegedly misclassifying employees as contractors to avoid paying benefits and payroll taxes?

[thalarctos]

My favorite line from LTC Bateman's article:"...Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater and a Naval Academy dropout who served less time under the colors of the nation, in uniform, than my most recent pair of boots."

[GuyFromOhio]

As comepelling as the essay itself is the comment threads. If there was ever a collection of the methods and madness (figurative and literal) of the neocon warmonger mind, you can read it there. Kudos to Bateman!

[mudkitty]

Erik, the Prince of Darkness personified. He makes Cheney look like a piker.

[Count Zero]

My favorite line from LTC Bateman's article:"...Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater and a Naval Academy dropout who served less time under the colors of the nation, in uniform, than my most recent pair of boots."

Being from a rich family and the entitlement you derive from it is funny like that. Sort of like being the failed manager of a baseball team somehow means you can run a country. Go figure.

[Cass]

Its worth noting, for all this, that there's nothing Blackwater mercs have been accused of in Iraq that hasn't also been reported of our government-employed soldiers, many times over. Rahul Mahajan had a must-read essay on this recently, contrasting the amount of hand-wringing being done over the mercenaries today versus the (predictable) fizzling of the Haditha prosecution:

www.empirenotes.org/twoatrocities.html

I've been guilty myself of harping on the "unaccountability" of the mercenaries in Iraq, but the truth is that virtually no one (out of sight, at least, of our feeble media) has been held accountable in Iraq for anything... and that was clearly the design from the very start. Jesus, we're bombing the most densely populated parts of Baghdad now on a daily basis, and the best estimates are that close to million Iraqis have died so far thanks to our nation's giant power-grab. Nothing Erik Prince has done or ever will do compares to the deep damnation of our own government's actions.

[cfrost]

Oderint dum metuant baby. Winning hearts and minds.