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 skimped on needed medical care for wounded
heroes, forced soldiers' families to pay for their body armor, and
tried to hold down soldiers' pay raises, 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.
Ummm.... someone obviously hasn't been in the military. I'm not Army, but ex Navy, and I've been out 20+ years but I do remember what happened when I was honorably discharged into a cold reality that there was no civilian job to transition to. My point? Where the hell do you think Blackhawk gets its operatives? They're ALL with little exception, soldiers. Many US, some older, some from allies past and present. So does this "honor" you wish to bestow upon our "noble" troops expire the day they are discharged and become part of the jobless warriors Blackwater recruits? When do they become brutal abusers of Iraqi nationals?
I for one would love to see NO contractors in Iraq, and the military with cooks in uniform, soldiers in uniform cleaning shitters- it was that way in WW2, and still in '79 when I enlisted. However since around Vietnam, with so many cynical Americans questioning the motivation of our government we have this "I support the troops, not the illegal war of aggression!" mentality and frankly recruiting based upon "It's the right thing to do, Johnny, fight for your country" is kind of sucking right now- who knew? So soldiers get out and want to make some real cash, rather than follow Pat Tillman's footsteps down a path of shame.
The cynicism of the left is why Blackwater is enforcing US policy, not just GOP cronyism and profiteering. You expect men to eagerly sign up and eat dung flies in 122 degree heat and lose limbs or die for $1200 a month? They might if some of you weren't working so hard to remove sll moral validation for the cause.
***plugs in the Gibson LP 35th anniv. Black Beauty(a bargain new at GC in 92 for $1700) to the Marshall 2x12 JCM900-it is god-tone.*** Thank you for hearing my senseless rant.
Posted by: JL | January 15, 2008 at 02:56 AM