The evils of the Iraq war
 

Holy crap...

Words can not begin to describe the evils of the Blackwater guys. I was thinking the government supporting little boy parties is right up there, but this is damn reprehensible...

I can't say much more than this. Having 17 people killed in "self defense" is really a stretch. This is one of the few times you should have an expedited death penalty...

I like how these private military contractors with a history of crime, murder, rape, etc. just change their company name and, hey, it's a-okay to hire them again!

EDIT: Actually I'm not even sure if they had done the name change yet back when they were re-contracted for a year immediately following this incident.

ANOTHER EDIT: Nope, didn't do the name change to Xe until 2009. The subsidiary that does the business side of things is now known as U.S. Training Center Inc., and supposedly is now focusing on security training instead of actually doing it themselves.

Obviously I want my bodyguards to be trained to murder and rape people, so I'm definitely going to send them to U.S. Training Center, Inc. and Xe!

maybe the government realizes it would be hypocritical not to hire them when our own military has the same history, or any military in the history of the human race.

And the article was in 2008... I know they've been on trial since then regarding those deaths.

And look, a thread about it!

Yes, it is hypocritical not to hire highly paid private mercenaries who make 6 times the amount of regular soldiers and who do not answer to military law, courts, jurisdiction, oversight, etc. and who have a history of war crimes to conduct our military operations.

Never mind, not even going to fucking bother. Clearly it is hypocritical not to hire murderers for 6 times the price tag when some of our own soldiers (who shouldn't be there either) have committed similar crimes. Yes, so much hypocrisy!

EDIT: No, Flarecobra. The one about the 17 deaths was dismissed. You are thinking of the two who got involuntary manslaughter for killing two and wounding a third.

It's a really interesting struggle. I could make up an entire list of government contractors supporting really REALLY terrible decisions in other countries.

But I'd be here all day. Just talking about the Dyncorp scandal seems like a really bad corruption of funds.

Ah, thank you for the clarification.

And you know, when I was in Iraq, the entire time I was there in 2008, I didn't really see any Blackwater folks, nor do I recall any transport requests from them... though it might just mean they weren't operating in our area of operations. And for security, we actually had a company from Uganda... pretty cool folk there, very professional.

mostly its a matter of numbers, PMCs are hired to suppliment our own troops because we are a volunteer military. Though it is kind of dumb to pay them more. Paycheck is one of the main perks of military position after all, if they can go work for a private group where you get more money and can leave when you want, well why not go there.

Top secret war

Actually, no it's not "dumb" to pay a private group more. It just leaves the government in a really bad position. Let's say you have a Lt. Col. making $100,000 (just an example) a year. He looks and sees a security job, where he can do the exact same position for x2 as much. He's well off, but his country sure isn't.

If you look at the link above, you can see how we have a large military industrial complex, along with how we've been spending money left and right, with XYZ organization. Check it out. It should be fun to watch the numbers increase for all organizations in the secret war on terror (and the American public)

This sort of thing is why the UN outlawed mercenaries in the first place yes?