Letters to the Editor
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I beg to differ...
"the contractors have only the safety of their charges in mind."
I don't think anybody, including me, actually believes that.
What I do believe, however, is that the big bucks, soldier-of-fortune, gun-as-penis mentality has attracted a large number of the wrong kind of people to these "security" organizations.
The "little Napolean complex" that some see in their local hometown constabulary can take on gargantuan opportunities and consequences when men are given the chance to act out their Rambo fantasies on a population they view as weak, inferior and inconsequential. Especially when they can operate outside the law, gunning down unarmed women and children, among others of their choosing from the relative safety of a heavily armed convoy. The excuse of "guarding" a dignitary gives them an overblown sense of importance and entitlement to inflict harm at the slightest "perceived" danger.
Also, as with most "gun-as-penis" types, the thought of real danger doesn't pump up controlled adrenaline, it pumps up fear, and that fear makes people trigger-happy and indiscriminate. If they were really concerned with security and serving their country in the face of risk, they would be Marines, as my two sons are.
The entire concept of these mercenaries is a bad idea gone even more wrong.
It is not providing security, it is instilling hatred and mistrust and putting our troops at greater risk. You know, those troops who will go on trial and to prison if they wrongfully shoot someone themselves, while contractors collect their enormous pay, are shuttled out of the country to escape any consequences...and probably to end up in Iraq again for another greedy security company that is more concerned with billings than with personnel issues.
Our troops must now patrol streets where citizens have seen instances of careless and deliberate brutality by "private security contractors".
Get the security forces out now. And get our troops out, too. This is a fiasco that just gets worse and more shameful for our nation every day.