The Bad Boyz of Blackwater

To make things perfectly clear, I am in no way supporting the U.S. occupation of Iraq. And for those of you who insist on calling our involvement in Iraq a war, let me remind you of something: Congress has not declared War; Congress just let two out of control power freaks with a hidden agenda loose on another country.

However, I am very much in support of out active duty and former military.

The Iraqi government is outraged over a shooting that took place involving Blackwater employees. And, the Iraqi government is deciding to begin governing their country in respect to attempting to actually make rules of engagement for security contractors (as opposed to actually governing their own people). So the U.S. Government has implemented rules for these contractors.

I have a couple of questions here:
1. Why is the Iraqi government suddenly interested in issues involving the deaths of civilians now? I mean, they did not seem terribly interested when the deaths of civilians were the results of car bombs set of by other Iraqi’s or Iranians, or Sunnis or Shiites. Suddenly, they are pissed off at American contractors, many of whom they themselves employ for their personal protection. I mean, really Folks!

2. The U.S. Government, through whatever means they choose (I won’t even digress here because this can go into a whole other litany of soapbox blogging) contracted Blackwater for security purposes (and other stuff, I imagine). As is not surprising, the Powers-that-Be are now throwing this company under the bus. I say this while spitting out the nasty taste in my mouth that tends to appear when spineless people appear in my peripheral vision.

But, I do want to point out that this administration brought in the Bad Boyz from Blackwater, and let them loose to help them in this occupation, and now they are gasping for breath while holding they hands to their hearts and saying “Oh, my! We really should take a look at making some kind of rules for these kids!.” This is called establishing Rules of Engagement. Along with the “If we go in, how do we get out” philosophy of combat, you seem to have forgotten all about this, Mr. Bush.

One of the reasons that people go into Special Forces, Navy SEALS, etc. is because they get to legally play with firearms and blow shit up. Then, people realize that they can do this legally in a civilian force and get paid a whole lot more to do it. They get to go to an unlawful place, make their own rules and shoot guns and blow shit up, all while looking very cool. FOR A WHOLE LOT OF MONEY! To top it all off, our own media (who are ALSO probably protected by the Bad Boyz of Blackwater) call them arrogant. Now, I have no doubt that there is some arrogance involved. After all, and at the risk of being repetitive: They get to go to an unlawful place, make their own rules and shoot guns and blow shit up, all while looking very cool. FOR A WHOLE LOT OF MONEY! I can guarantee that if I was in that position at the age of, let’s say, 28-32…Hell yeah! I’d be one arrogant little prickllet!

I guess the whole point of my little tirade is that I am, once again, disgusted with the behavior of those who represent me.

So as of right now, the cost of this occupation in dollars is: $459,084,636,564, more or less. But, the intangible cost of this occupation will take generations to figure out. Not only are we going to have to re-do a whole lot of respect- gaining from the rest of the world (who, by the way, does not have short memories, as we do), we are going to have to explain how we send in our people, cut them loose to do what they want, and then punish them for doing what we asked them to do.

This all comes down to some basic models for anything. Let me give you a hint Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney:

1. When you occupy a country in the name of fighting terrorism, make sure to get there first covertly and plant some really good shit so you can have what is called evidence to back you up. Ask any big city cop: they'll show you how to do it.
2. When you send a bunch of boys and girls to the wild, wild, west, make sure you set some guidelines in place. Something like “Don’t shoot civilians” might help just a little bit. I know, I know, it’s hard to tell who the bad guys are, but perhaps you just might want to try. Just a little.
3. When your bad boyz get into a little trouble BE A FUCKING MAN AND BACK THEM UP!

Nuff said for now.