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Support Our Mercenaries

Today six Blackwater mercenaries security contractors have been taken in to federal custody and charged in the September 16, 2007 massacre of 17 civilians that left another 20 wounded.

Blackwater has been profiting from the war from the start thanks to the extensive Republican contacts made by founder Erik Prince, and this is far from the first (to put it mildly) questionable incident they have been involved in. All in all, from 2005 to September 2007 Blackwater was involved in 195 shootings. Do you know how many times the "enemy" shot first? Thirty-two. In 195 shootings, they fired first 162 times. Let's look back at some of their greatest "hits", as it were...

There was the time they crashed one of their armored SUVs into an Army Humvee, and then proceeded to disarm and detain the American soldiers. Oh, and those 3 guards for the state-sponsored Iraqi Media Network gunned down by a Blackwater sniper despite not having fired a shot, and the civilian shot in a separate incident in Baghdad for "driving too close" to a convoy.

And possibly their finest moment was the drunk murder of the Iraqi Vice President's security guard in 2006. On Christmas eve, no less. Festive, no? The company's must have felt the warmth of the season in his heart that December 25th. The joy of baby Jesus' birth, renewed hope for mankind, the senseless bloodshed of innocent men, women, and children that would be your only legacy. Ah, the holidays.

As sick as this all is, none of it really shocks me anymore. If it did, it would mean I am hopelessly naive. No, what sickens and boggles me most is the right wing fascists who are leaping to their defense. Now while I can't personally relate to the "ra ra ra, America fuck yeah, support our troops" mentality, I guess on some level I understand it. Personally, I support our troops who deserve it. But the ones who are over there stealing, raping, murdering...well, those guys deserve an IED enema. Fuck them. But to be outraged that people might be held accountable and taken to trial for war crimes, people who are not even soldiers? What the fuck? Didn't Bush run on a platform of accountability and responsibility? Why is it then that these people don't want to see anyone punished for their misdeeds? These people are the first to condemn any civilian that is arrested in this country (provided they aren't white and rich) and assume that they are guilty guilty guilty, and should be executed for that dime bag they were caught with. They are the first screaming for the blood of every Arab carted off to Gitmo, regardless of the evidence or lack there of.

So why? Why the support for Blackwater? When did war profiteering become a noble and honorable pursuit? Is it pure racist jingoism, the belief that anyone who is shooting brown people in Iraq is a good guy who loves freedom, yay freedom, no matter what uniform he is wearing, or if he even is wearing one? If they love freedom so much and wanted to give that precious gift to the Iraqi people, why then when Iraq say they want Blackwater out don't the neocons honor that? Why aren't they allowed to use their new-found "freedom" to prosecute the bastard foreigners who kill their people, especially given the bastards' own government is completely reluctant to?

For more on the full glorious story of Blackwater, check out "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers", a Robert Greenwald film. Part one, approximately ten minutes, is below.