Letters to the Editor
-
Lawless State Department
Until pressured by the House Committee on Oversight to conduct an investigation, the State Department was complicit with the mercenaries, undermining its own mandate to bring security to Iraq, as well as destroying any semblance of credibility for its stated goals of fostering civil society, democracy and the rule of law.
What makes you believe that the State Department is not now and continuing to be complicit? It hasn't cooperated, nor has it acted ethically and in good faith.
It's obvious that its Pledge of Allegiance is to its own subversive interests and not to the US.
-
Erik Prince is slime
Has there been a more grotesquely posturing little rightwing militarist twit as absurd as Erik Prince since the heyday of Oliver North and Iran Contra. He'd better enjoy the gravy train he's on because, come 2009, a new adminsitration is going to slam the door in his smug little privileged face.
-
Rule of law
It's supposed to be a good thing, right? Isn't that what we're supposed to be teaching those lawless insurgents who maim and kill with impunity?
-
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.
-
Not to mention the veiled threat
Let us not forget Issa's veiled threat against Waxman. The video of Issa on C-Span (it's all over the web, just search for "issa waxman blackwater threat") is chilling.
The right wing, we must continue to remind ourselves, is at war with the Democrats/progressives/liberals/leftists/godless humanists - they are at war with the rest of America and would like to expand the shooting war to include Iran and Syria.
Everyone who opposes this kind of thing needs to understand what we are up against. Appeasement is not working.
-
Wow
A private, corporate-financed army, loyal to only one political party. Now there's a bold turn for the U S of A.
A great piece, Mr. Blumenthal, thank you. And Slackie Onassis hit the nail on the head: when Blackwaters go unemployed in 2008.......our very own, real Republican Guard.
Perhaps I should say, if.
-
The 3 Rules
Normal approaches to political and policy analysis don't work for the Bush Administration. The well-documented lack of anything resembling a policy apparatus makes it all too clear that the Bush Administration is not really trying to accomplish anything. The politically disastrous veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) shows that even the vaunted goal of a 'permanent Republican majority' actually isn't that important to Mr. Bush.
The Bush Administration's similarity to a Mafia family (a comparison regularly made by NYT columnist Maureen Dowd) explains its lack of guiding principles or objectives. Instead, the Bush Administration operates exclusively on 3 rules that Vito Corleone would heartily approve of:
1. Destroy your enemies
2. Reward your friends
3. Maintain power at all costs
Outside the 3 rules nothing else matters. The whole Iraq adventure is only useful to the Administration to the degree it helps the Bush syndicate retain power. I sincerely doubt that Messrs. Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld have lost more than a minute's worth of sleep between them worrying about the fate of either the Iraqi people or any individual Iraqi citizens. Innocent Iraqis might get killed, but it's "….just business".
-
Mercenaries are politically cheap...initially
the military is a highly sensitive and politicized institution. You have to kowtow to them, praise them, laud them, indoctrinate them into why they need to risk their lives by fighting your latest enemy, and punish those that dare to impugn them (moveon.org). You also have to deal with their families back home and they get pretty vocal when things start to go wrong etc...
There are no such connotations or restrictions surrounding mercenaries, you know they fight for money,if you sign on the dotted line, you can do away with all that political and tiresome 'we love the military, don't dare criticize the military' stuff, you don't have to put on a sincere face and hold back tears as you mention the sacrifice of mercenaries, or meet with their families.
They're cheap until a tipping point is reached and the truth of their cost in all senses of the word is revealed...after that they're nothing but trouble.