" The State Department allowed Blackwater's heavily armed teams to operate without an Interior Ministry license, even after the requirement became standard language in Defense Department security contracts. The company was not subject to the military's restrictions on the use of offensive weapons, its procedures for reporting shooting incidents or a central tracking system that allows commanders to monitor the movements of security companies on the battlefield.
'The Iraqis despised them, because they were untouchable,' said Matthew Degn, who recently returned from Baghdad after serving as senior American adviser to the Interior Ministry. 'They were above the law.' Degn said Blackwater's armed Little Bird helicopters often buzzed the Interior Ministry's roof, 'almost like they were saying, 'Look, we can fly anywhere we want.' '"
September 20, 2007
Oh, and this is just lovely
In yet another example of how the Republicans in charge really don't understand our history, take a look at this story on the mercenary company called Blackwater and convince me that the Founders would not freak the hell out about a standing mercenary army that functions without oversight and with the direct support of the government? Convince me of that, given the Founders concerns about a standing army of any kind.
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3 comments:
Despite some excellent training programs, Blackwater has a terrible reputation. This has been discussed heavily over the years on many of the forums I post on and comes as no surprise. Those people are idiots.
OK, but . . .
Arguably, the well-regulated militia clause of the 2nd Amendment could be construed to refer exactly to groups like Blackwater. Jefferson believed that a little revolution now and again was a good thing (try citing the Founding Fathers when you have that discussion with Homeland Security), so we needed to have an armed populace.
So, isn't there a case for
"Don't tase me, bro!"
"OOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!"
Arguably, it seems like this is more of an indictment on mercenaries. The second amendment is silent on the topic of hiring mercenaries to do the work of soldiers in other countries. Militias became a part of the chain of command, while groups like Blackwater mostly functions outside of that system and engages in all sorts of bad behavior, including targeting civilians, shooting at Iraqi and US troops, and looting. I don't have a problem with private security, but not when they are used like this.
The FF also said something about avoiding foreign entanglements
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