Don Bergman of Park Township offers his take on Blackwater USA in the Holland Sentinel and asks some important questions:
Is Blackwater better-equipped than the U.S. military, better-trained and better-led to do the jobs traditionally done by Marines? If this is true, then the Gauls are at the gate. If not true, then why aren't the Marines guarding our diplomats? Are we short of personnel? If so, where's the draft? Why has this president chosen to fight this war with private contractors, which make up about half of our operations in Iraq, and nearly half of these, about 48,000, are private security guards equipped with automatic weapons, body armor, helicopters, and bulletproof trucks? Why have these companies been exempt from the rules that govern our military?
What kind of people are we when our private hired soldiers can take over a major public space, kill 17 civilians without provocation and escape being held accountable?
Taxpayer subsidies for private mercenaries are antithetical to a democratic republic.
It really frustrates me that the Bush administration and Blackwater continue to blur the lines between these hired mercenaries and our troops. They're not in the same league as our soldiers. Blackwater's hired mercenaries don't make the same long-term commitments to serve multiple tours of duty for low pay (they earn 6 figures) like our soldiers do, yet they're being honored liked they're equals.
How so? For six years, San Diego has been honoring our military through a series of Fleet Week events featuring parades, displays of aircraft, etc. No problem there until the San Diego State Aztecs devoted their halftime show to honoring our veterans - a halftime show that included Blackwater USA.
Well, for at least the second year in a row (probably all three), the halftime show included an American flag being parachuted onto the field by members of a nation parachutist team...who happen to work for Blackwater and use parachutes emblazoned with the Blackwater logo. [...]
I spoke with Steve Becvar of the SDSU Athletic Foundation, which was involved in planning the event. He explained that this is the third year that Blackwater-affiliated parachutists had played a role in the Fleet Week game. He emphasized that the school was not seeking to make any sort of political point, simply to partner with the Fleet Week Foundation to honor veterans.
Veterans? Blackwater's mercenaries are hired employees of a private for-profit company owned by Michigan billionaire Erik Prince. They don't deserve to be honored. More from Calitics:
But despite what may well have been the best intentions of event organizers, Blackwater has NO business honoring veterans. Blackwater profits from war and has a vested interest in prolonging any military struggle as long as it increases revenue. They are, in fact, naturally at odds with everything that our veterans should be honored for. They dishonor the flag and all the people who have bled for it whenever they or their representatives try to wrap themselves or the Blackwater logo in the American flag.
Blackwater knows what it does. And they know that they're nothing next to the members of the actual military.[...]
Blackwater serves the dollar. And they have no business being remotely affiliated with veterans or current servicemembers.
Amen. This was a slap in the face to our real American soldiers and veterans.
