Are Bush/Cheney raising their own private army of Blackshirts?
Just when you think the Bush/Cheney cancer cannot any more poisonous, another scandal breaks.…
"A sinister cabal of superior writers."
Privatizing Murder, Or Blackwater: The Perfect Combo Of Christianity, Capitalism And Killing - Comments Page 2
Article comments
— go to most recent comments26 - Lee Richards
The legacy of Bush/Chaney & the Neocons:
The ends they seek justify any means they want to use.
They trivialize our ideals, attack our traditions of government of, by, and for the people, and corrupt our rule of law.
Their Big Lie is claiming--like every despot--that all their actions are for our own good.
We may or may not be able to repair the damage they've caused.
27 - bliffle
"What did Friedman stand for?"
Why, Friedman stands for Freedom To Choose, of course.
You would have Freedom To Choose among various manufacturers of light bulbs, for example.
That is, after the industrialists exercise their Freedom To Choose how to organize their monopolies, and after they've exercised their Freedom To Choose which government officials to bribe, and they exercise their FTC to exclude competitors, etc.
Get it?
28 - Doug Hunter
You wouldn't need to bribe government officials if government didn't have it's nose in everything. The most regulated industries (gaming, pharmaceuticals, energy/utilities) are the most stagnant and corrupt, the less regulated industries (like the internet/technologies) are breeding grounds for new ideas, wealth and job creation, and the real drivers of our economy.
Anyway, at least Friedman stands for something all your precious leftist agitators have is hate of capitalism/freedom and whining about how brainwashed losers among their ranks can't compete in a free market.
Oh, and Cindy, thanks for bringing sex, race, and religion into the conversation. It really serves to prove my point about the whiny, excuse making types that so often reside on the left of the political spectrum. If that's all you got it's pretty weak.
29 - Clavos
Yeah, you're right, bliffle.
We should immediately pass legislation nationalizing all industry and let the government (the one that can't deliver the mail, protect the borders, maintain the highways and bridges, rebuild New Orleans, or win a war) run everything.
Of course, that might put a few million worker drones out of work and on the government dole, but we can always raise taxes on those evil industrialists. Oh wait, they don't have anything left to tax. OK raise taxes on the government-run industry. Oh wait, we're the government. OK, we'll just print more money.
Yeah, that'll do it.
30 - Clavos
"The most regulated industries (gaming, pharmaceuticals, energy/utilities) are the most stagnant and corrupt, the less regulated industries (like the internet/technologies) are breeding grounds for new ideas, wealth and job creation, and the real drivers of our economy."
VERY good point, Doug.
31 - Cindy D
Doug-
You speak as if there could possibly be a meaningful discussion about why and how people operate outside the context of history.
32 - Doug Hunter
I don't live in the past, I suppose it's one of those 'priviledges' you speak of. Do feel free to vent about how things used to be though. I promise I'll feel all bad and guilty inside.
33 - Dave Nalle
Lee Richards demonstrates a fundamental logical fallacy, the assumption that because one thing is wrong doing the opposite is somehow automatically right.
The truth is that one thing being bad does not automatically guarantee that the opposite course or any alternative is automatically better.
The Bush administration may have fucked up in various ways, but that does NOT mean that socialism and anti-capitalism are automatically good. They can still be as bad or worse in their own way.
dave
34 - bliffle
"The Bush administration may have fucked up in various ways, but that does NOT mean that socialism and anti-capitalism are automatically good."
Are those REALLy the only alternatives?
How about honest capitalism that isn't allowed to openly bribe governments through lobbyists?
How dreary if those are the only alternatives. Is that really the limit of your imagination and reason?
35 - Cindy D
Doug from Disneyland-
I'm not talking about the history as in my own personal history or in the sense of "the good old days."
I'm talking about History. As in, the history of our government, the history of our culture, the history of our world and our civilization. You know, the information that we look at to make sense of the present.
Judging by the breadth of your view on poverty (which seems to be limited to survey of your immediate neighborhood), my guess is that history, for you, goes back as far as whatever was on TV during the past week.
Talking with you gives me the sense of diving from a height into a goldfish pond.
Or maybe you are a kid, which would explain a lot.
36 - handyguy
If the rhetoric in this overheated but interesting article, and in the appalling, name-calling comments it has generated [on both sides], were turned down a couple of notches, a useful discussion might actually occur.
Instead, we get:
"Bush/Cheney raising their own private army of Mussolini-type Blackshirts" [plus irrelevancies about Milton Friedman]
"Folks on this site are almost all right wing rednecks"
"Offensive, ill-informed and mindlessly anti-capitalist "
"another bogus smear campaign"
"lame left wing propaganda put out by bitter idiots"
"the most privileged class ever to exist in the entire fucking world" [even the articulate Cindy D got caught up in the storm!]
"an even rarer group, people with half a brain whose minds aren't bizarrely warped by partisan propaganda." [comparing Doug Hunter favorably to Cindy! ludicrous!]
"the whole Second Amendment thing that the Left wants to essentially repeal..." [massively irrelevant, from someone who calls other people's opinions 'propaganda']
Whether Blackwater are just nice security guards with drinking problems, or potential blackshirt militias, the PR disaster from this recent incident has been severe enough for Condi Rice to get very publicly involved in damage control. It's pretty awful stuff, and it deserves more than a yawn from the rightists on here [and better reasoning and comparisons from those on the left]. In other words, it's definitely important enough to talk about.
So say something useful. Possible?
37 - Franco
#2 "Colin
From what I have heard and read of Blackwater they do amount to a very large and very, very, very well-armed private army out there somewhere in the woods, owing much of their current prosperity, to the current War on Terror.
Is that legal in the USA?
Colin, it is not only legal, American history details the contributions of private contractors in the development of our Nation.
Examples include the Jamestown, Plymouth, and Massachusetts Bay colonies; all started as private investment endeavors whose security was provided by private military companies (PMCs) also known as security contractors.
Across the street from the White House is Lafayette Park; on its four corners stand statues of Lafayette, Von Steuben, Rochambeau, and Kosciusko. All were foreign professional military contract officers that came here to help build and develop the capacity of the Continental Army. The base of one of the statues bears the inscription: “He gave military training and discipline to the citizen soldiers who achieved the independence of the United States.”
38 - Franco
#4 " Colin
Naomi Wolf - Fascist America, in 10 easy steps
It is always right to question government, to hold it accountable for its actions for preserving our freedoms and individual rights.
Naomi appears to try to do just that with her essay. Indeed the reasoning behind her concern is where she appears so noble. These noble concerns relate to the failed governments that have taken on the 10 steps she outlines with have complete disasterus effects on human rights, freedoms of the press, the right to organize and petition the government, the right to an life, liberty and the pursuit of open market ecomomy for a better life and happiness.
At face value, the case being made by Naomi is presented as admirable in this regard, but a closer look reveals her own agenda from the far left perspective by failing to apply the "single standard" to all those what-a-be 10 steppers, which the US in not (althogh is it right to question). This failure of Naomi to apply the one standard for all practiceing "10 steppers marks a falling short in openness and balance, it alos brings her intellectual honesty into question.
Naomi starts out with…….
From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all
First of all, making any comparison to Hitler of any western democracy, marks a glaring lack of comprehension of the once German Third Reich.
Second, to put Pinochet next to Hitler, and leave Castro and Chavez utterly absent in her assessment, indecates she is disclosing her acceptance of these other 10 steppers as many on the left do. There is no other reason for her to leave them out. This then casts suspicion on the intellectual foundation of her argument.
So let’s MoveOn and take a look at Pinochet, Castro, and Chavez.
Pinochet was a dictator and he had his hands in torture and murder. But Pinochet, unlike Hitler and Castro, was not inebriated nor addicted to his own power and thus turned the country back over to free elections willingly and peacefully and stepped down as the country recovered economically. Today Chile, an open liberal democratic society, leads all of Latin America it economic growth and stability and it is currently internationally rated as one of the top three countries in the world for foreign investment.
Castro on the other hand, who Naomi dose not mention for reasons of her own, is still a living breathing dictator who forged the Cuban closed society on torture and murder and by employing all of the 10 steps she points out. He maintains his iron hold on Cuba to this very day by continuing to fully employ this same 10 steps.
Additonally, and in direct contrast to Pinochet, Castro promised the country free and open election when he came into power, then shortly after he reneged on that promise to the Cuban people and nationalized everything, even his mothers farm which she never forgave him for.
Cuba has been in the toilet ever since and has been living on handouts the past 50 years. At least on the bright side you could say that Castor has the world’s greatest collation of old cars, something Naomi must find heartening.
Naomi also fails to mention Hugo Chavez, who is in the process of closing down an open society right in front of our eyes. Based on the Naomi step scale, Chavez has already completed 8 of the 10 steps that no one here on BC could successfully argue against. And if her premise is right, Chavez will have the last 2 coming to a theater near you soon.
Chile earned their economic standing in an open and free market economy from a right wing foundation. A reality that Hugo Chavez surly scratches his head over on how to deal with this living thriving successful democracy in his back yard.
Unlike Chile, Chavez will be nationlalizing everything and will have to buy Venezuels ecconomic recovery using his huge capitalistic profits from oil sales. A grand plan by an anti-capitalist buying his revolution with capitalist profits.
If alternative fuels sources are found to greatly reduce oil demand, Venezuela goes broke in a New York minute, Cuba starts looking for other hand outs, and Chile cashing in on the new fuel technologies.
Naomi is right to point out the ten steps, but the left enjoys the appearance of intellectualizing openly and honestly on realities, but instead they actually compartmentalize their ideologies in to agendas that are not open at all.
I think Naomi in more into making money off her books written for her leftest readers then she is in brideing the divide in a nation that needs bridges.
If the left wants the reality of being taken seriously by the majority of all Americans then they must deal with reality in their discussions. Otherwise they will continue to call themselves into question on the sincerity on their intellectual honesty.
39 - Dave Nalle
Colin, it is not only legal, American history details the contributions of private contractors in the development of our Nation.
Not only that, but we've used private auxiliaries to supplement our military since the Revolutionary war. I'm writing an article on this and the Blackwater situation, but the key thing is that by all appearance Blackwater goes beyond just being mercenaries, to have the best interests of the US at heart - far more so than the internationalists and socialists like Adam Ash and Naomi Wolf. They also do a pretty damned good job of what they're hired for.
Dave
40 - troll
the question in this case however is who is supplementing whom - ?
replace the US military with a privatized force...and privatize the funding while your at it
41 - Catey
Blackwater, hmm, it sounds so mysterious, and interesting. Where did the name come from?
I find myself both agreeing and disagreeing with it. The disagreeing part being why and how much of our tax money is being paid to them to do what our military is suppose to be doing anyway?
42 - handyguy
Excellent article about Blackwater founder Erik Prince in today's NY Times. It also covers Prince's father's involvement with conservative Christian causes. Here's the best bit:
“I think that he thinks he is like Bruce Wayne in Batman,” said Robert Young Pelton, the author of “Licensed to Kill” (Crown Publishing Group), a book on contractors in Iraq, who is one of the few journalists to have interviewed Mr. Prince extensively. “Bruce Wayne lives in a mansion and then at night he is out in the bat cave with the Batmobile. And that is Erik. I think he is conflicted.”
43 - handyguy
Whether Blackwater "does a damn good job," as Dave claims, or are lawless thugs, as apparently at least some are sometimes, they ought to be covered by some kind of laws, eh? But up until now, they have been exempt from Iraqi law [by order of Paul Bremer] and it's not clear what US laws apply in cases where they shoot at the wrong people [deliberately or not]. That's the reason Condi Rice and even Republicans in congress are rushing to correct the situation with oversight and regulation.
For Dave and others to paper over this as irrelevant is offensive...but all too typical. After all, it's only a few Iraqis that got killed, right? No casualties that actually matter. And wrapping the utterly profit-driven Blackwater in the American flag, with stories of Lafayette, is laughable. You can do better.
44 - Cindy D
It's difficult for me to discuss what details may be acceptable within a war that is unacceptable. But here are the arguments I find compelling.
Private security in itself is not something I have a problem with if Senator Claire McCaskill's points are valid. McCaskill, who was escorted by Blackwater recently, says the contractors are used because military personnel would be spread too thin if they took on the security detail. If what she says is true, I would prefer private security over any possibility of a draft.
She also said, "...Blackwater's actions could be seen as 'unseemly' if the agents were not accountable to anybody." Unseemly--the political euphemism for reprehensible.
That is the other issue--accountability. From the same article:
"The House has approved a bill making all government contractors accountable for their actions under U-S law, even if the actions take place outside the country. The bill passed 389-30 although it is strongly opposed by the Bush administration."
The fact that Blackwater has been operating outside the law has given them license to kill civilians. That the bill passed is a relief.
I will leave off the quotes from Iraqi citizens whose accounts seem credible to me. And their position seems supported by this quote from the Washington Post:
"Separately, a U.S. official familiar with the investigation said that participants in the shooting have reported that at least one of the Blackwater guards drew a weapon on his colleagues and screamed for them to 'stop shooting.' This account suggested that there was some effort to curb the shooting, with at least one Blackwater guard believing it had spiraled out of control. 'Stop shooting -- those are the words that we're hearing were used,' the official said."
The fact that Bush was opposed to making private security accountable under U.S. law is revealing.
45 - Nancy
Anything Bush opposes automatically renders it telling as being worthwhile at least to think about. The only things that bastard thug doesn't oppose are increasing his own power and making his own power unlimited.
46 - Doug Hunter
Thanks nancy for highlighting the nuance of the lefts arguments. Ignoring facts or evidence and replacing them with knee jerk Bush = Devil, exactly what your puppetmasters want you to do.
47 - wdufkin
"The disagreeing part being why and how much of our tax money is being paid to them to do what our military is suppose to be doing anyway?"
I suppose we must have private firms to perform the deeds that the American media & friends will not allow our American military soldiers to do.
48 - moonraven
No matter how you rubes slice and dice it--nor how much Texas barbecue sauce out of the bottle you pour on top of it, this bullshit, murder and mayhem is being financed by YOU.
I fail to see what Hugo Chavez has to do with anyof this--and let me tell you he is completely uncoerned about anything in Chile.
Fucking nightmare, that place--you can't even take public transportation anymore because it was privatized to a group of thieves who sunstituted Lionel toy trains for subway cars.
And the second highest level of inequality in distribution of weath in SA--right after Brasil.
Meanwhile, Venezuela has the second highest level of development in the world.
And, a day early for the 40th anniversary of themurder of Che Guevara: Hasta la victoria siempre--cabrones.
49 - handyguy
Doug -
Answering each and every post you respond to by calling it partisan, while at the same time repetitively hawking your own partisan platitudes (examples: "whiny, excuse making types that so often reside on the left of the political spectrum..." "Ignoring facts or evidence and replacing them with knee jerk Bush = Devil") gets us exactly nowhere.
If you have something meaningful to say on the topic at hand, do tell.
50 - Dave Nalle
The idea that Blackwater is 'unaccountable' here is an opportunistic fiction. There are specific provisions under the Geneva Accords covering the behavior, conduct and treatment of mercenaries. There is international law and there are international courts which could try not only the men involved, but their superiors and even Erik Prince. Hell, they could try them in absentia as they have done with others.
As for the incident in question, no argument from me that it's excusable. Those involved should obviously be punished for it. But think for a second about the number of mercenaries in Iraq (almost as many as regular soldiers) and the relative numbers of such incidents. It appears that the mercenaries are, if anything, LESS likely to commit atrocities or make mistakes and kill the wrong people than regular soldiers are.
Then there's the matter of the cost. The majority of these mercenaries are being paid for with funds from outside the government or at least outside of the military budget. What's more, the US government is not directly responsible for a lot of their expenses so the cost per man in the field is often lower with mercenaries than it is with our soldiers. And let's not forget as someone pointed out earlier that the use of private auxiliaries reduces the need for a draft and putting additional soldiers at risk. And finally, a lot of these guys are our army veterans who are getting paid a decent wage for their work because of their military experience, something that they never had when they worked for the military.
Dave
51 - moonraven
Published on Monday, October 8, 2007 by the New York Times
Blackwater Shootings ‘Murder,’ Iraq Says
by James Glanz / Alissa J. Rubin
BAGHDAD - The Iraqi prime minister’s office said Sunday that the government’s investigation had determined that Blackwater USA private security guards who shot Iraqi civilians three weeks ago in a Baghdad square sprayed gunfire in nearly every direction, committed “deliberate murder” and should be punished accordingly....
52 - Dr Dreadful
moonraven, I see you're online (or were 15 minutes ago). Be interested to see your thoughts on the latest couple of comments posted on the Chavez/education thread...
53 - bliffle
Meanwhile, recent documents reveal, even as they were denying it, the admin was authorizing torture.
Ace reporter Kati Couric reported that....airplane tickets were going up!
54 - moonraven
Not good news for the bird addicted to flying, bliffle.
Speaking of which, I should be packing my bag instead of shitting around with you punks on BC.
55 - moonraven
[Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor]
1. I was ASKED on this thread to respond to the bogus posts on the Chavez thread.
2. I am going to the US--so will definitely NOT be spreading goodwill. You [Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor] deserves NOTHING but bad will--and bad everything else.
Even the Canadian dollar is booming compared to your puny currency.
56 - Dave Nalle
I was ASKED on this thread to respond to the bogus posts on the Chavez thread.
So respond there rather than posting 5 personal attacks here that Chris had to delete.
dave
57 - Cindy D
Defense Secretary Robert Gates to Congress regarding private security contractors:
"My concern is whether there has been sufficient accountability and oversight."
"...his press secretary, Geoff Morrell, said Gates has received some preliminary answers to his initial questions about contracting in Iraq.
"Those answers, at least when it comes to the oversight component, have not been satisfactory," Morrell said.
Henry Waxman, Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and other members of the committee on Blackwater:
'Short' on standards
'Unaccountable'
A drunk Blackwater security guard killed the Iraqi Vice President's bodyguard and was flown out of Iraq without facing any charges.
"Mr Waxman's staff produced a scathing report on Monday that released details of several incidents involving Iraqi casualties, in which Blackwater employees had fired first on 163 out of 195 occasions.
In the majority of cases, the guards fired their weapons from moving vehicles without stopping to count the dead or assist the wounded, the report said."
Blackwater has been paid over $1 Billion in government contracts since 2001.
No matter how you slice it...if they are not being held accountable. They are Ipso facto not accountable.
Maybe the defense secretary and the Congress members are engaging in "opportunistic fiction" because they are left-wing international socialists.
58 - Clavos
"Even the Canadian dollar is booming compared to your puny currency."
Seems strange that you would gloat about that since your pension is obviously dollar-denominated, making it worth fewer pesos every day.
59 - alessandro
#55: Moonraven, if you're going to cite the Canadian dollar as a means to belittle Americans I hope you have some knowledge as to why the Canadian dollar is rising. Tying a rise in a currency to nationalism is a fool's game.
As if a weak U.S. dollar is a sign of "weakness."
Macchiavelli was no fan of mercenaries: "He who holds his State by means of mercenary troops can never be solidly or securely seated. For such troops are disunited, ambitious, insubordinate, treacherous, insolent among friends, cowardly before foes, and without fear of God or faith with man. Whenever they are attacked defeat follows; so that in peace you are plundered by them, in war by your enemies. And this because they have no tie or motive to keep them in the field beyond their paltry pay."
And
"AUXILIARIES, which are the other useless arm, are employed when a prince is called in with his forces to aid and defend..."
Now of course, how this applies to fighting terrorism in today's context is subject to debate.
60 - Nancy
Doug, my estimation of Bush's character (or lack thereof) isn't formulated by any "puppetmasters", but by the scumbag himself. There are plenty of GOPs I hold as high as I hold any Dem (which, actually, is pretty low, all told). In a nutshell I've come to the conclusion ALL politicians need to be eradicated - along with (as Ruvy calls them) their special interests masters. I am an equal-opportunity politician-loather.
61 - bliffle
Today comes news of more Black Deeds by the Blackguards at the aptly named Blackwater: two innocent women shot to death in their car. Without provocation.
More infamy and calumny to come down on our heads because of these irresponsible maniacs.
And, incidentally, we've given the lie to the fiction that the Iraqi Maliki government is free of US domination: Bush revoked Malikis demand to remove Blackwater.
Of course, nobody in Blackwater (nobody important anyhow) will be held accountable.
Just as the life failure who appointed them, George W. Bush, has never been held accountable for anything in his misspent life.
Isn't it about time we all hold him responsible?
62 - Dr Dreadful
Has it been confirmed that the guards were Blackwater employees? The report I read said that the company hadn't been named.
63 - bliffle
Oh great! Do we have even more cowboys in Iraq spraying bullets in all directions?
This is not the way to Win Hearts And Minds.
64 - moonraven
Dave,
I will do whatever I damn please. You are not the owner of this site. You don't like what I write--have me banned, you hypocrtical free speech advocate.
65 - Dave Nalle
Dr. D, there are about a half-dozen mercenary groups operating in Iraq, and most of them are not up to the standards of Blackwater. It could very well be one of those other groups.
Dave
66 - Franco
#61 " October 9, 2007 @ 11:38AM " bliffle
"Just as the life failure who appointed them, George W. Bush, has never been held accountable for anything in his misspent life.
Isn't it about time we all hold him responsible?"
Maybe so bliffle, but lets start with you first.
bliffle sez......"Today comes news of more Black Deeds by the Blackguards at the aptly named Blackwater: two innocent women shot to death in their car. Without provocation."
Bliffle comes to us with clear facts without any emotional biased neither ruling his reason nor effecting his judgement. bliffle was there folks, he can share the facts with us here and now. He knows every detail of what happened, who did it and exactly why.
Bliffle’s experance in the combat war torne streets of Iraq, coupled with his extensive contact with the highly clever and ruthless enemy, the citizens, and the constantly unknown mixture of both, has allowed him to gain special insights in knowing that all Iraqis, with few exception, can be taken at there word when they provide any negative accusations about Americans.
He knows the Iraqis people share the same sense of responsibly for getting to the truth as he does. He has full faith in their shared GOOD WILL EFFORT!
He also knows it is completely insane to think for a minute, that the possibility exists that that Iraqis themselves could have orchestrated the killing to blame it in Americans, including these two women. Especially when the world is watching right now the Congressional hearing on other questionable killings. He knows all of the Iraqi government officials’ ethical standards would never try and falsely trying influence the American people..
bliffle sez......."More infamy and calumny to come down on our heads because of these irresponsible maniacs."
Biffle knows how to drive in a 24/7 war zone and stay alive. His ability to decisively know who the enemy is, where and have the set up traps, even though they look like everybody else, he has the skills to never make a single mistake in knowing the difference between the two.
bliffle sez........"And, incidentally, we've given the lie to the fiction that the Iraqi Maliki government is free of US domination: Bush revoked Malikis demand to remove Blackwater."
Biffle is right again. He knows that even if the Iraqi government, God for bid, were to be infiltrated with Sunni or Shia militia representatives secretly backing a civil war, or secretly ordering Iraqi Sunni or Shia police to carry out kidnapping, tourter, and murder of the other, or secretly inform their militia agents when and where new Iraqi police recruits where to gather or where they lived so they could be either blown up, shot on the spot, or kidnapped, tortured to death, and their bodies dropped in piles some where the city as a warning.
Even if the government secretly and purposely dragged its feet to create killing and chaos in the streets, extending the war effort to furustrate and dishearten Americans at home as American soldger casualties mount up, even if all this craziness were to come true, biffle is right, Buch should not intervene.
67 - Clavos
"Reports today confirmed that the group involved in the recent shooting was a smaller Dubai based security company not Blackwater."
Tsk, tsk.
How inconvenient.
68 - Clavos
Both ABC and Fox News announced in their evening broadcasts that the company involved is not even American.
It's Australian.
69 - bliffle
dave sez: "...and most of them are not up to the standards of Blackwater."
Oh great! They only kill 2 civilians at a time instead of 17!
Raise high the standards!
Increase that kill-ratio.
70 - bliffle
Franco sez:
"Even if the government secretly and purposely dragged its feet to create killing and chaos in the streets, extending the war effort to furustrate and dishearten Americans at home as American soldger casualties mount up, even if all this craziness were to come true, biffle is right, Buch should not intervene."
Are you drunk! Again!
71 - Cindy D
which rules out the likelihood that any of them figured they are accountable
72 - Cindy D
apparently every tom, dick and harry operation out there, knows they aren't accountable
73 - Baronius
The most provocative word in the title turns out to be a red herring. Adam's big connection between Christianity and Blackwater? The founder's father donates to charity.
74 - handyguy
Erik Prince's father donated gazillions to the Family Research Council [and Focus on the Family's James Dobson gave the eulogy at his funeral]. Maybe you consider these two orgs 'charities.' I consider them nut-job political groups.
This does not mean that Erik Prince shares his father's predilections. He is described by friends as 'more of a Libertarian.' With a Bruce Wayne complex. He's fascinating and a bit of a weirdo.
75 - Dave Nalle
Handy, I appreciate that you're clearsighted enough to differentiate between Erik Prince's motivations and those of his father.
Prince seems to be up to something much more interesting and much more revolutionary. He's found a way to do the work that the US military isn't prepared to do and that America's leadership lacks the backbone to do. By all accounts he does it very, very well and his motivation seems to be at least as much patriotism as profit.
This issue with the unfortunate civilian casualties has to be seen in context. There are almost as many mercenaries in Iraq as there are regular US soldiers, and the truth is that their record of restraint is pretty impressive. They haven't been involved in nearly as many 'unfortunate' events as the regulars, though to be fair the regular military has to do more of the high profile work.
Prince and Blackwater are fascinating. Keep your eye on them. We'll be hearing more.
Dave