I had an argument with a Rush Limbaugh fan the other week. Is the US using mercenaries in the ‘war on terror’ in Iraq? Sure they are. The Limbo-head said I must be wearing a tin-foil hat. I guess Rush hadn’t mentioned this, so how could it be true?
It’s getting difficult to be right so much of the time.
In case you’re just joining us from the La-La Land of Limbaugh, there’s this private army called Blackwater that’s been in-country for a bunch of years now, and they’ve just recently had a spotlight shined on them. Cockroaches are scattering. They’ve been acting as the world’s largest private militia, subject to no laws and no oversight. They’ve been killing civilians and staging military operations without direction from the US military. They’re a rogue organization sanctioned by (guess who?) the George W. Bush administration — thousands of mercenaries in Iraq operating under no authority except their own. (And the exact number of operatives is unknown, even to members of the Congressional committees who ostensibly oversee things like, oh, secret military operations.)
And they’ve already started to take their show to America. That’s right: the plan seems to be to use Blackwater to ‘police’ Americans. The first known incident was post-Katrina, where Humvees full of flak-jacketed heavily armed mercs roamed the streets, answering to no one, ready to stop anyone they suspected of being a looter. Apparently, if they didn’t like you, well, bam-bam, you’re dead.
Now they’ve opened two large training facilities, with one here in California. Do you really need to be a paranoid conspiracy theorist to see danger in having heavily armed paramilitary troops roaming America? Some of the founding fathers thought it was a bad idea:
“There are instruments so dangerous to the rights of the nation and which place them so totally at the mercy of their governors that those governors, whether legislative or executive, should be restrained from keeping such instruments on foot but in well-defined cases. Such an instrument is a standing army.” --Thomas Jefferson
Before you call me names or accuse me of being some wacko conspiracy tin-foil-hatted vigilante — because I quote the Huffington Post and other known conspiracy rags — please do yourself a favor and stop giving the neocons the benefit of the doubt. Ask yourself: how many steps away from a police state are they now? If they’re close, what’s to stop someone, anyone from abusing this?
If the founding fathers were against uncontrolled use of a militia, muchless the use of the military against the American people, why are you OK with it?
Here’s an insightful, candid piece by Jeremy Scahill, a reporter who recently wrote a book on Blackwater. It’s five minutes long and very much worth your time.
I’m not asking you to believe every theory or succumb to every fear, but don’t reflexively throw out the message because you don’t respect the messengers. Just listen to the arguments and think critically.
Tags for this post: blackwater, blackwatergate, bush administration, congress, congressional oversight, Conspiracy, constitution, founding fathers, george w bush, gwb, iraq, mercenaries, militia, oversight, private army, rush limbaugh, tin foil hat war on terror
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November 2nd, 2007 at 7:21 am |
I don’t know why people would dispute this fact, first I’ve heard of blackwater, as for mercs in Iraq well since that war started ex military from all over the world jumped for the chance to make some American dosh.
In New Zealand people quit the army to take on private jobs in Iraq, good thing the NZ government moved to make this kind of activity illegal with up to 14 years in prison.
It’s horrifying to think that mercs make up the second largest military force in Iraq, even more than the British, well it was back in 03 anyway.