There should be a lot. These private contractors should have to follow guidelines for certification to bid, they should follow military laws of engagement if they wish to be employed by taxpayer dollars, they should be held liable for the damages that they create. I personally see no need for independent mercenaries in a war zone. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071010/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq_blackwater
I guess allowing a private military to become established much as Hitler's SS was is fine with all you upstanding American's? Blackwater and independent mercenaries is an important issue. One that all free individuals should consider at least as important as buying the latest flat screen tv. I wish you would view it as an implication that individual and constitutional rights no longer matter, as we seek to spread our brand of democracy worldwide. But I guess it's not? Blackwater and their behavior threatens the safety of all those brave heros, (all your young women and men that serve in uniform). Blackwater does it through controling the level of violence in a war zone without oversight. They up the level of hostilities then go back to their posh protected hotel suites awaiting their next limousine. They receive more than three times the going rate of our soldiers. Yet they are accountable to no one. If you think the State Department's promise of more insight means anything, then you don't remember Colin Powell telling the world that porta potties were evidence of WMD?
Blackwater has total immunity from Iraqi law and US military law. Do you think it is possible, since Bush has issued an executive order allowing him to use military force against internal protests or dissent within the US, that Blackwater could be used as a Praetorian Guard to suppress dissent on American soil?
Well Iraq is not backing down which is good, and now the Security Chief for the State Department has resigned. Maybe something will actually happen to stop this travesty called Blackwater. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl...ld/5243308.html
