From Pine View Farm

Private Armies 4

As I drove home from the jobsite yesterday, I listened to Fresh Air on the radio.

Scary:

Blackwater USA is a secret army based in North Carolina with a sole owner: Erik Prince, a radical right-wing Christian multimillionaire. Jeremy Scahill talks about his book Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.

Give it a listen, then wonder about WHAT THE HELL THE NEOCONS ARE DOING TO OUR COUNTRY!

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4 comments

  1. Opie

    March 20, 2007 at 6:24 pm

    The “secret army” kinda blew its cover when they put up a full-blown website at BlackwaterUSA.com, both advertising their services and soliciting applications for employment.

    Hey, NPR never accused us right-wing Christians of being smart…

     
  2. Frank

    March 22, 2007 at 7:17 pm

    I never said, “Secret.”

    But I notice that Blackwater claims that it is immune from investigation because everything it does is classified. It does cloak itself in secrecy.

    Opie, I have nothing against rightwing Christians. Or leftwing Christians. Or right- or leftwing atheist.

    I do have concerns about private armies who claim immunity from investigation and believe they can operate autonomously on our soil.

    Fighting wars should be a function of government, not of private companies.

    My son is in the same harm’s way that Blackwater employees are.

    Why isn’t he getting paid $350 a day?

    Why does he have to obey the Rules of War and the Rules of Engagement when they don’t?

    Why are they immune from investigation when they screw up, when his chain of command is not?

    If he dies, he’s just as dead as one of their mercenaries.

    This is just wrong.

     
  3. Opie

    March 22, 2007 at 9:49 pm

    I wasn’t commenting on what you said, Frank, I was commenting on what you quoted from NPR. You/ didn’t say “secret,” they/ did. You/ didn’t play the “radical right-wing Christian multimillionaire” scare tactic, they/ did. NPR knows their donor base is largely secular, and that perpetuating a well-engineered image of conservative Christians as scary, radical people will draw them more memberships than it loses.

     
  4. Opie

    March 22, 2007 at 9:51 pm

    I wasn’t commenting on what you said, Frank, I was commenting on what you quoted from NPR. You didn’t say “secret,” they/ did. You didn’t play the “radical right-wing Christian multimillionaire” scare tactic, they did. NPR knows their donor base is largely secular, and that perpetuating a well-engineered image of conservative Christians as scary, radical people will draw them more memberships than it loses.