Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Salon :: The Dark Truth About Blackwater

Following the recent revelation that - surprise - when you put 160,000 heavily-armed amoral soldier-for-hire thrill junkies into an environment bereft of oversight or consequences, sociopathic behavior emerges, Salon's P.W. Singer offers this prosecutorial screed:

When we evaluate the facts, the use of private military contractors appears to have harmed, rather than helped, the counterinsurgency efforts of the U.S. mission in Iraq, going against our best doctrine and undermining critical efforts of our troops. Even worse, the government can no longer carry out one of its most basic core missions: to fight and win the nation's wars. Instead, the massive outsourcing of military operations has created a dependency on private firms like Blackwater that has given rise to dangerous vulnerabilities.

Likely NOLA residents felt plenty vulnerable when these Keystone Soldiers arrived in their back yards - but what happens to 'those people' isn't such a concern.