04.21.08
Outsourcing deadly force to private companies
There’s an excellent post on the serious problem of having private companies allowed to use deadly force against guerillas and civilians in other countries, with legal immunity for whatever misdeeds the employees of the company commit, up to and including homicide. (Even the military does not allow that.) And Blackwater troops have even been deployed in the US—in New Orleans, for example.
Take a look at this, from the post mentioned:
It’s an important post, and you should read it. It begins:
I grew up, as many of you know, in a military family. In my family – as in most military families – there is a deep loyalty to the United States: the well-being of our country comes concretely before our families and very lives.
It is appropriate that when our country of, by, and for the people authorizes the use of deadly force, it is only to those whose loyalty to our country comes before any other loyalties they have.
Except that, as you know, that’s not now the case. Now we have people using deadly force in our names whose loyalty is instead to corporations, most notoriously Blackwater.
Mark Murrell said,
21 April 2008 at 3:17 pm
More fumbles by the US governemnt:
http://markinchicago.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/04/the-american-go.html