Letters to the Editor
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Prince lives up to his name
Wonderful piece, Mr. Blumenthal, and while I read it, immediately I thought that even "mercenaries" is perhaps too polite and savory a term for these guys, because there's a sense that a mercenary will take work wherever they find it, and maybe Blackwater would, but their Republican connections point to an ideological spin to Blackwater et al. -- "paramilitaries" comes to mind, like yet another step in the direction of banana republicanism.
It's clear that these gunmen owe a huge debt to the Dicktator, who gave them a generous infusion of public money in his bid to create a paramilitary army accountable to no one, ultimately. Cheney's usual contempt for the rule of law is all over this enterprise, and I wonder how this'll play out in 2009 -- what will these private warriors do, precisely? To whom does their allegiance lie? See the problem? This is why private armies are always, always a bad idea. And when ideological nutballs like Cheney create them, then they're like, what, the Alpha 66 Cuban exile paramilitaries? Ready for whatever dirty deeds are required of them? Need a leader assassinated? Ring'em up.
Right now, these guys are making beaucoup (I hate to have the word "coup" anywhere near'em) money, and assuming the Dems win in 2008, that funding is likely to dry up. So then what? Where do they go? Personal bodyguards for the GOP? Wetwork for right-wing client regimes of the US? What, exactly? Where do paramilitaries go when they're unemployed? Especially right-wing ones who've made big money under a Republican regime? Even the personage of the aptly-named Mr. Prince exudes this American fascistic vibe -- rich, evangelical, reactionary soldier-boy...
Erik Prince, heir to an auto-parts fortune and an evangelical right-wing former Navy SEAL... "We're a private company, and there's a key word there -- private," he said.... His contempt for his congressional interlocutors was barely concealed. "If there's two questions left," he said, "I'll take them and then let's be done."
This is serious stuff, worrisome stuff. The privatization of military force is a huge, huge threat to our country. If they were just greedy, that would be bad enough; but if they're greedy and ideologically driven, then Washington, we have a problem.