Mercenaries can turn on us

(MG) Writing in the Philadelphia Enquirer, Chris Hedges, former war correspondent issues a warning about US funded mercenaries.

Armed units from the private security firm Blackwater USA opened fire in Baghdad streets twice in two days last week. It triggered a standoff between the security contractors and Iraqi forces, a reminder that the war in Iraq may be remembered mostly in our history books for empowering and building America's first modern mercenary army.

There are an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 armed security contractors working in Iraq ... and some estimates run much higher. Security contractors are not counted as part of the coalition forces. When the number of private mercenary fighters is added to other civilian military "contractors" who carry out logistical support activities such as food preparation, the number rises to about 126,000. (MG) logistical support activities such as food preparation -- means we have mercenaries making meals, riding security detail with convoys -- stuff the U.S. military used to be able to do (in times of war) ... Donald Rumsfeld's wet dream of a lighter more dynamic military devolves to this -- corporate whores sucking from the military budget teat of the federal government's seemingly bottomless money trough -- oh, that would be money collected from we the people ... our tax dollars at work; mercenaries are making six-figured salaries, which has to give our troops pause --

(MG) nor are deaths of mercenaries counted as deaths of coalition forces, nor are war injuries to mercs counted as war injuries

"We got 126,000 contractors over there, some of them making more than the secretary of defense," said House defense appropriations subcommittee Chairman John Murtha (D., Pa.). "How in the hell do you justify that?"

The privatization of war hands an incentive to American corporations, many with tremendous political clout, to keep us mired down in Iraq. But even more disturbing is the steady rise of this modern Praetorian Guard. The Praetorian Guard in ancient Rome was a paramilitary force that defied legal constraints, made violence part of the political discourse, and eventually plunged the Roman Republic into tyranny and despotism. Despotic movements need paramilitary forces that operate outside the law, forces that sow fear among potential opponents, and are capable of physically silencing those branded by their leaders as traitors. And in the wrong hands, a Blackwater could well become that force.

(MG) The war machine has unsatiable profit motive to perpetuate perpetual war

American taxpayers have so far handed a staggering $4 billion to "armed security" companies in Iraq such as Blackwater, according to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.). Tens of billions more have been paid to companies that provide logistical support. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D., Ill.) of the House Intelligence Committee estimates that 40 cents of every dollar spent on the occupation has gone to war contractors. It is unlikely that any of these corporations will push for an early withdrawal. The profits are too lucrative.

(MG) remember how our troops went over without armor, without kevlar vests?

Mercenary forces like Blackwater operate beyond civilian and military law. They are covered by a 2004 edict passed by American occupation authorities in Iraq that immunizes all civilian contractors in Iraq from prosecution.

(MG) licensed to commit war crimes - they do, they will continue to do so

Blackwater, barely a decade old, has migrated from Iraq to set up operations in the United States and nine other countries. It trains Afghan security forces and has established a base a few miles from the Iranian border. The huge contracts from the war - including $750 million from the State Department since 2004 - have allowed Blackwater to amass a fleet of more than 20 aircraft, including helicopter gunships. Jeremy Scahill, the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, points out that Blackwater has also constructed "the world's largest private military facility - a 7,000-acre compound near the Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina." Blackwater also recently opened a facility in Illinois ("Blackwater North") and, despite local opposition, is moving ahead with plans to build another huge training base near San Diego. The company recently announced it was creating a private intelligence branch called "Total Intelligence."

(MG) and the reason we have the CIA, military intelligence, DIA, FBI, etc etc etc ... is once again, because? I'm supposed to believe the private sector can do this better? Remember, a merc is a merc - a person who fights other people's wars for money ... LOTS more money than a soldier makes ... LOTS more

Erik Prince, who founded and runs Blackwater, is a man who appears to have little time for the niceties of democracy. ( MG - one could say the same thing about Rove, Gonzalez, etc etc etc .. it seems to be part of the membership requirements to get into the GOP political hierarchy) He has close ties with the radical Christian Right and the Bush White House. He champions his company as a patriotic extension of the U.S. military. His employees, in an act as cynical as it is dishonest, take an oath of loyalty to the Constitution. But what he and his allies have built is a mercenary army, paid for with government money, which operates outside the law and without constitutional constraint.

Mercenary units are a vital instrument in the hands of despotic movements. Communist and fascist movements during the last century each built rogue paramilitary forces. And the appearance of Blackwater fighters, heavily armed and wearing their trademark black uniforms, patrolling the streets of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, may be a grim taste of the future. In New Orleans Blackwater charged the government $240,000 a day.

(MG) the mercs themselves hated it ... only made about half as much per diem as they made in Iraq

" 'It cannot happen here' is always wrong," the philosopher Karl Popper wrote. "A dictatorship can happen anywhere."

The word contractor helps launder the fear and threat out of a more accurate term: "paramilitary force." We're not supposed to have such forces in the United States, but we now do. And if we have them, we have a potential threat to democracy. On U.S. soil, Blackwater so far has shown few signs of being an out-and-out rogue retainer army, though they looked the part in New Orleans. But were this country to become even a little less stable, outfits like Blackwater might see a heyday. If the United States falls into a period of instability caused by another catastrophic terrorist attack, an economic meltdown that triggers social unrest, or a series of environmental disasters, such paramilitary forces, protected and assisted by fellow ideologues in the police and military, could ruthlessly abolish what is left of our eroding democracy. War, with the huge profits it hands to corporations, and to right-wing interests such as the Christian Right, could become a permanent condition. And the thugs with automatic weapons, black uniforms and wraparound sunglasses who appeared on the streets in New Orleans could appear on our streets.

(MG) another example of not calling a thing by its true and rightful name - "contractors" is a term used to obfuscate - mercenaries - hired guns for war, with no political allegiance to any nation; no rules; when the bodies of four mercenaries were hung and burnt to a crisp on the bridge in Fallujah, the US response was swift and devastating - the white house laid siege to and destroyed Fallujah - pay back. Bush gave more support to the mercs than he have given to wounded US troops or battle-scarred troops