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And, yes, I DO take it personally

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Blackwater: bringing it back home

what goes around, comes around...





Seven people were arrested Saturday at Blackwater Worldwide’s front entrance after protesters re-enacted the Sept. 16 shooting incident in Baghdad involving Blackwater in which 17 Iraqis died.

It was the first protest at the 10-year-old private military company’s headquarters, a reflection of its heightened profile since the Baghdad shootings stirred Iraqi anger and created a diplomatic crisis for Blackwater’s client, the U.S. State Department.

The protesters drove a small gray station wagon, covered with simulated bullet holes and smeared with red paint, onto Blackwater’s property. One lay back in the driver’s seat and five others got out and lay on the ground, as if they had been shot.

The scene was intended to mimic that in Baghdad’s Nisour Square, where an Iraqi doctor and her son died in a fusillade of gunfire as their car approached a Blackwater diplomatic convoy.

The protesters also smeared red handprints on two Blackwater signs.

let's not kid ourselves here... the united states has a long history of training its young people to kill, and then placing them in situations where that particular skill is required and often must be used... the employees of blackwater are no different from the soldiers the u.s. has deployed around the globe for generations... many, if not most, of blackwater's employees are, in fact, former military... they represent a vast number of americans - either current or former members of the armed forces, as well as an equally large number who are not, never have been, nor ever will be in the military - who support war as a common tool of foreign policy, rather than as an extraordinary measure to be used only when all else fails...

as a vietnam army veteran, i, too, am a product of our warrior society... along with my fellow citizens, i have been schooled in countless ways that our wars are necessary and just, and that those we are sent to fight are cruel and barbaric... is it any wonder that we have incidents like nisour square in baghdad, haditha, abu ghraib and my lai...? is it any wonder that those higher up the food chain aren't held accountable...? after all, they're only carrying on with our rich heritage of death and destruction...

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Friday, May 11, 2007

I'm discouraged

i know it's temporary and will pass, but, i gotta tell ya, i've just finished my early morning news skim and all i see is a bleak vista of a country and a presidential administration headed rapidly downhill with all the speed and power of an out-of-control freight train... from the account of robert greenwald's congressional testimony on war profiteering in alternet (drawn from his movie, "Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers"), to our lying attorney general and world bank president, both of whom still hold office, to the iraq war funding bill passed yesterday that bush says he'll veto, to the two-star general saying that the hadita massacre didn't deserve an investigation, to darth continuing to lie about the iraq run-up, to democrats climbing in bed with bush on free trade, to the totally bullshit story about bush (again) being open to compromise, this time on iraq benchmarks, WHERE, i would like to know, is the reason for optimism...?

p.s. i'll get over it... i have a half-day drive ahead of me to a smaller town where i begin teaching a graduate class this evening... it'll keep my mind off of doom and gloom and might even improve my outlook, who knows...

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Saturday, April 21, 2007

"Iraqi civilian lives are not as important as U.S. lives"



"the cost of doing business..."
"All levels of command tended to view civilian casualties, even in significant numbers, as routine and as the natural and intended result of insurgent tactics," Bargewell wrote [Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell's 104-page report on Haditha]. He condemned that approach because it could desensitize Marines to the welfare of noncombatants. "Statements made by the chain of command during interviews for this investigation, taken as a whole, suggest that Iraqi civilian lives are not as important as U.S. lives, their deaths are just the cost of doing business, and that the Marines need to get 'the job done' no matter what it takes."

and we wonder why they hate us...

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