NYT's New Toy

> Their record with the State Department is perfect

If you'd taken the time to read the report, you'd see that a State Department official suggested the hush money to the family of an Iraqi victim "could cause incidents with people trying to get killed by our guys to financially guarantee their family’s future" and recommended lowering the payment amount. The State Department's in bed with Blackwater.

It's great that they're keeping Americans alive, but how many Iraqi lives are worth one American life?

An entire Blackwater convoy could fit in one of Henry Waxman's nostrils.

Re Susan, you have to love a sentence that runs, "It's great that they're keeping Americans alive, but..."

In addition to the survey, maybe Blackwater should hand out those blue shirts from gym class to AQ and other subsidiary groups, and then they can continue on with their mission.

WTF is going on in this country?

Don't mean to pile on Susan, but omigod. Libs are big on compensation for national wrongs. Now it's "hush money"?

The anti-military, anti-violence diplomats at State didn't rein in Blackwater, and made sure they had immunity. They knew Blackwater was keeping them alive and preventing their kidnapping, a serious strategic threat for U.S. diplomats.

Blackwater had the kind of reputation one wants to have in a place like Iraq. No doubt given a choice, your average terrorist would choose the convoy NOT protected by Blackwater.

Agreed with your point about letting the hammer fall on any wrongdoing, no question. And the press has been quite gleeful about anonymous military statements decrying Blackwater as undercutting their careful, painstaking hearts and minds COIN strategy.

But something tells me this thing will only increase Blackwater's street cred and general overall coolness. Today's testimony should be interesting.

As with most things, I think both sides have blown this issue up with the usual political hyperbole.

Blackwater has done a lot of good, yes... and they, no doubt, have saved the lives of many of our diplomatic personnel.

With that being said, what in the hell is the mission of the Diplomatic Security Service? And what are they doing in Iraq if we have to pay more money to a contractor to protect our diplomats?

And it's not "hush money". If you understood anything about Arab culture, you'd understand that wrongs to a person (or a family) can be righted through two ways... compensation or revenge.

We had a farmer in the southern part of our AO when I was in Iraq who would place his lame horse in the middle of a road that we often used, hoping to get it hit by an American vehicle (or have it put out of its misery by a soldier) so he could cash in. The horse was useless... it was the most miserable looking creature I'd seen.

And, yes, something like this incident DOES damage the good we're trying to accomplish there. It probably went down the way Blackwater said it did... but, once they left and the Iraqi Interior Ministry showed up, facts no longer mattered. Perception is truth... how many times have I hammered this point??!! The Iraqi MoI could have said that Blackwater was beheading people and it would have been accepted as fact.

susan says:

"It's great that they're keeping Americans alive, but how many Iraqi lives are worth one American life?"

lots of them susan lots of them.

C

This is all about crippling the war effort. If Waxman can't get the troops out of there, he will try to get the "mercenaries" out of there (which is an easier task politically). If he succeeds, the troops will have to pick up the slack, and they will be less able to succeed at their other missions.

how many Iraqi lives are worth one American life?

Would your answer change if that one life was yours? Think carefully...

does susan come from or know anybody at columbia u.

this sounds like something that the gal with the brother that is the middy would say.

C

Susan - the answer to your question is easy.

There is no one human life who is "worth" another. You don't trade lives in war. We, unlike those we fight in Iraq and elsewhere do value human life. And we will fight to the death, and that includes our own, to protect human life.

Note that I said "human".

When you are talking terrorist thugs who masquerade as normal citizens, then it's a whole different ball game.

Have there been civilian deaths? Certainly, just as there have been in every war ever fought by man and just as there will be in every war that has yet to come. It's not pretty or desired, but it happens. We (and Blackwater) take every precaution possible to minimize those casualties. In fact, we take them so far that we could endanger our own fighting men and women.

You need to get a helmet and get in the game...

This is one are where I don't agree with the general consensus.

Blackwater, and other security firms, should not ever be considered a legitimate alternative to military forces. They are above the law and outside of the military command structure. This makes them very dangerous within AO's and there SOP's, and the outcome of employing these SOP's, often run contrary to the overall mission in Iraq.

I do not like how they operate and think that it is a aberration that these mercenaries are being used as replacements for US military forces, the first big test of the Pentagon's new policy regarding private forces on a operation.

It is simply wrong and goes against what the US stands for.

TO: John, et al.
RE: The Value of a Human Life in Iraq

$15K? Is that all?

So. Does that mean if I find you in Iraq and I've got $15K, a rifle and a bottle of fine Kentucky Sour Mash, your ass-is-grass?

Interesting approach. How like outfits like BleechWater.

Regards,

Chuck(le)

P.S. You KNOW what 'blackwater' is in the world of plumbing.....

Quote:
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"You're right, next time they should stop in the middle of an ambush so that they can conduct a freakin' survey."
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Thanks for making me bust out laughing at work.

It was not easy to explain.