But, but.... as they stand up, they're not supposed to actually, you know, assert sovereignity or anything. How dare they prosecute our fine mercenaries!
I think more details need to come out about what happened. This could be them exerting sovereignity to protect their people or it could be politics. I dont think enough has been released about what happened other than a car bomb went off, they say they were fired upon, and they returned fire as they were heading toward the 'safe-r' zone.
Was it excessive force or was it fog of war? Were they all civilians or were some of them part-time civilians using civilians as the equivalent of body armor.
I dont write this to protect Blackwater. I know very little about them, whether they are consummate professionals or John Rambo types. I find this a very interesting development and a sad news story. I'm curious what the expectations are for application of deadly force in response to a threat between private mercenaries and our armed forces.
Depends on how the facts play out, but these casualties seem to be getting a lot of government attention over the cacophony of daily deaths from car bombs, sectarian violence and death squads that they dont seem to do much about.
I think more details need to come out about what happened. This could be them exerting sovereignity to protect their people or it could be politics. I dont think enough has been released about what happened other than a car bomb went off, they say they were fired upon, and they returned fire as they were heading toward the 'safe-r' zone.
Was it excessive force or was it fog of war? Were they all civilians or were some of them part-time civilians using civilians as the equivalent of body armor.
I dont write this to protect Blackwater. I know very little about them, whether they are consummate professionals or John Rambo types. I find this a very interesting development and a sad news story. I'm curious what the expectations are for application of deadly force in response to a threat between private mercenaries and our armed forces. Is collateral damage somehow more easily excused if it is core military personnel that have been fired upon.
Depends on how the facts play out, but these casualties seem to be getting a lot of government attention over the cacophony of daily deaths from car bombs, sectarian violence and death squads that they dont seem to do much about.
The folks I know that have taken up Blackwater contracts have all been pretty professional, so I'm pretty sure this isn't a case of folks going Johnny Rambo. That said, I'm not sure that there is a whole lot that those folks can do that wouldn't result in civilian casualties and a public relations mess. They have no ability to tell friend from foe and they are responsible for the safety of the convoys they are protecting. If that means hosing down a bunch of mud huts with M2 fire... well... I guess it sucks to be occupied. Vae Victus and all that.
In any event, I guess it makes this particular Help Wanted ad a bit more difficult.
This is the internet! In our natural environment, atheists run in packs and have dictionaries! --- JoeBeDurndurn
I'm not sure that there is a whole lot that those folks can do that wouldn't result in civilian casualties and a public relations mess.
That's always going to be a problem when the Blackwater guys order of concerns are 1) to get home alive, 2) get paid, and 3) worry about civilian casualties. I don't see them as bloodthirsty or reckless or anything, but they're doing a security job there for money. That's the nature of the beast.
Yeah, most guys working at Blackwater have impressive military backgrounds, but were skilled, smart, and cynical enough to take their skills on the open market. Given there are assholes driving around in their big shiny SUVs with their mirrored sunglasses, but those are the guys that end up on public display in Fallujah.
I blame this on the over-militarization of our mercenary corps. Clearly what we need is more mercanaries with Soc. degrees, and less ex-armed forces.
It'd be kind of nice if we had less ex-armed forces because our government was good enough to its soldiers that becoming a mercenary wasn't so appealing.
Every war has its iconic image in fiction. WW2 had a dirty GI Joe with a cigarette hanging from his lips. Vietnam had the muddy grunt with the cut-off sleeves and the joint. Iraq is going to have the Blackwater guard with his tan, not-quite-a-uniform flack vest, shooting glasses, and tooled up carbine hanging on one of those slings across his chest.
I'm not sure that there is a whole lot that those folks can do that wouldn't result in civilian casualties and a public relations mess.
That's always going to be a problem when the Blackwater guys order of concerns are 1) to get home alive, 2) get paid, and 3) worry about civilian casualties. I don't see them as bloodthirsty or reckless or anything, but they're doing a security job there for money. That's the nature of the beast.
And of course, in a counterinsurgency scenario, this is the exact opposite of the priorities you need in order to win. The first priority must be protecting the civilian population, even at the cost of casualties. It has been pointed out that to many Iraqis, contractors = CIA, with all the worst memes and connotations that go with that. It's been documented that in Fallujah the population was convinced that the contractors were CIA.
Remember: this conversation is just between you and me ... and the NSA. MaverickDago wrote:
Only commies pee "urine" or the devils cocktail as we call it, real Americans exude cold crisp light beer.
I can't find it now, but there was a great quote in one of the online articles from someone who works with/knows Blackwater and its reps well, to the point that they used automatic weapons like firehoses but don't intend to kill people. That's a *very* rough recollection; but it was enough of a juxtaposition of attitude/action that it stuck with me.
To me, this is just another sad sidelight on our "outsourcing" the war we made.
They have no ability to tell friend from foe and they are responsible for the safety of the convoys they are protecting. If that means hosing down a bunch of mud huts with M2 fire... well... I guess it sucks to be occupied. Vae Victus and all that.
Mercenaries operated in my country from 1920-21 in an attempt to suppress the uprising. They we're ex-Soldiers from the Great War and I do have some sympathy for them but "The Black and Tans", as they were known, are to this day hated and reviled in print and film. I've even seen my Grandmother curse like a docker when talking about them. Also to this day everyone considers them the British Army and not mercenaries. I suspect the same is true in Iraq.
Not that TIME is the best source, but I thought this quote was telling:
Blackwater wrote:
The Blackwater official declared that, contrary to some reports from Iraq, "the convoy was violently attacked by armed insurgents, not civilians, and our people did their job, they fired back to defend human life."
If it does turn out that most of these people were bystanders, then it becomes clear that when they say "human life", they don't include Iraqi civilians. That's a situation that the U.S. needs to deal with quickly, so if things turn out that way I would expect Blackwater as a company to go away. I don't think the situation was that cut and dried though. The CNN article gives an indication that the scene was very chaotic. It is also apparent that at least some people dressed as Iraqi police were either insurgents, or real police who viewed the convoy as hostile. They also have information of destroyed vehicles at the site from another contractor convoy, and the convoy being blocked by an Iraqi quick-reaction force who were pointing weapons at the convoy. I think the one thing we can know right now is that we aren't being told everything that happened.
My personal take on this is that someone overreacted when the bomb went off, and started shooting at vehicles that got too close to the convoy (which I've read is SOP for the guard teams). When that happened, Iraqis at the site started shooting at the convoy, thinking they were being attacked - classic case of the fog of war in action. This is borne out by the Iraqi QRF clearly indicating that they thought the convoy was the threat, not insurgents in the area. It is a very good thing that both sides exercised restraint in that confrontation, or it could have been a lot worse.
Remember: this conversation is just between you and me ... and the NSA. MaverickDago wrote:
Only commies pee "urine" or the devils cocktail as we call it, real Americans exude cold crisp light beer.
They have no ability to tell friend from foe and they are responsible for the safety of the convoys they are protecting. If that means hosing down a bunch of mud huts with M2 fire... well... I guess it sucks to be occupied. Vae Victus and all that.
Mercenaries operated in my country from 1920-21 in an attempt to suppress the uprising. They we're ex-Soldiers from the Great War and I do have some sympathy for them but "The Black and Tans", as they were known, are to this day hated and reviled in print and film. I've even seen my Grandmother curse like a docker when talking about them. Also to this day everyone considers them the British Army and not mercenaries. I suspect the same is true in Iraq.
Undoubtedly so. As someone who's only lived places where a "black & tan" is porter mixed with lager, I consider myself fortunate. The only use of mercenaries in America recently was Blackwater's participation in "Martial Law Lite" post-Katrina.
And in a clear demonstration of who is really in charge, Blackwater returns to work. Sometimes you have to wonder who was/is more obvious about their puppet governments, the U.S. or the Soviet Union.
Remember: this conversation is just between you and me ... and the NSA. MaverickDago wrote:
Only commies pee "urine" or the devils cocktail as we call it, real Americans exude cold crisp light beer.
I'm working my way through the book "Blackwater: The Rise of the Worlds Most Powerful Mercenary Army" and this goes and happens, go figure.
Excellent book by the way, it really brings the to the fore the question of who are these guys and just who are they beholden to over there. (No-one is the answer..) Also, there's an excellent look at how these types of paramilitary organizations that practically outnumber our enlisted men in Iraq are allowing our country to enter into more of these wars of choice, by severely limiting the amount of citizen responsibility in a war to paying the bill, or in this case, financing the debt to pay the bill.
Good book, check it out..
"War, it's gods way of teaching Americans Geography.." -Jon Stewart
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." - Howard Philips Lovecraft
The Army and the State Department are at odds over Blackwater because the army believes it's reputation on the streets of Iraq is being tarnished by what one officer referred to as their trigger happy behavior. Some money quotes:
"I personally was concerned about any of the civilians running around on the battlefield during my time there," said retired Army Col. Teddy Spain, who commanded a military police brigade in Baghdad. "My main concern was their lack of accountability when things went wrong."
"Many of my peers think Blackwater is oftentimes out of control," said a senior U.S. commander serving in Iraq. "They often act like cowboys over here . . . not seeming to play by the same rules everyone else tries to play by."
"Many of us feel that when Blackwater and other groups conduct military missions, they should be subject to the same controls under which the Army operates," said Marc Lindemann, who served in Iraq with the 4th Infantry Division and is now an officer in the New York National Guard and a state prosecutor.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold a hearing tomorrow on Blackwater's activities in Iraq, and by all indications, lawmakers will have plenty to talk about.
Quote:
Guards working in Iraq for Blackwater USA have shot innocent Iraqi civilians and have sought to cover up the incidents, sometimes with the help of the State Department, a report prepared for a Congressional committee said today.
The report, based largely on internal Blackwater e-mail messages and State Department documents, depicts the security contractor as being staffed with reckless, shoot-first guards who were not always sober and did not always stop to see who or what was hit by their bullets.
In one incident, the State Department and Blackwater agreed to pay $15,000 to the family of a man killed by "a drunken Blackwater contractor," the report said. As a State Department official wrote, "We would like to help them resolve this so we can continue with our protective mission."
And when it comes to alleged Blackwater malfeasance, that's really just scratching the surface.
Also note, Republicans want Waxman to postpone the hearing, and despite the scandals, Blackwater keeps getting lucrative contracts.
What I loved about that story was that the State Department investigation of the recent shooting incident was completed by interviewing Blackwater employees at the scene, and then written up by a contract employee of the State Department. Guess which company said contract employee worked for?
Also, I didn't realize that Blackwater's head was so tied into the Republican party and the Christian right.
The contract that Blackwater Security Consulting signed in March 2004 with Regency Hotel and Hospital of Kuwait for a 34-person security team offers a view into the private-security business world. The contract was made public last week by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee majority staff as part of its report on Blackwater's actions related to an incident in Fallujah on March 31, 2004, when four members of the company's security team were killed in an ambush.
According to data provided to the House panel, the average per-day pay to personnel Blackwater hired was $600. According to the schedule of rates, supplies and services attached to the contract, Blackwater charged Regency $1,075 a day for senior managers, $945 a day for middle managers and $815 a day for operators.
According to data provided to the House panel, Regency charged ESS an average of $1,100 a day for the same people. How the Blackwater and Regency security charges were passed on by ESS to Halliburton's KBR cannot easily be determined since the catering company was paid on a per-meal basis, with security being a percentage of that charge.
Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Baghdad overseeing more than 160,000 U.S. troops, makes roughly $180,000 a year, or about $493 a day. That comes out to less than half the fee charged by Blackwater for its senior manager of a 34-man security team.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Security contractor Blackwater was involved in at least 195 shooting incidents in Iraq since 2005, said a congressional report on Monday that also panned the State Department's oversight of the company.
State Department contractor Blackwater, under investigation for the shooting deaths of 11 Iraqis on September 16, will answer questions about that incident and others at what is expected to be a testy congressional hearing on Tuesday.
Senior State Department officials will also be grilled by the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform examining whether the growing use of military contractors undermines U.S. efforts in Iraq.
In another development, the FBI said it had been asked by the State Department to send a team of investigators to Iraq to look into the September 16 shootings. No criminal charges have been filed yet against Blackwater over that incident.
A report prepared by the staff of committee chair Rep. Henry Waxman, released details from Blackwater's own reports of multiple incidents involving Iraqi casualties and said in most instances Blackwater fired first.
The memorandum also slammed the State Department's oversight of Blackwater and said it was often more interested in getting the company to pay off victims' families and "put the matter behind us" than in investigating what happened.
It listed 195 shooting incidents from the start of 2005 until September 12 of this year, an average of 1.4 per week. Of those, there were 16 Iraqi casualties and 162 cases with property damage, the California Democrat said. He did not specify if there were fatalities.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The chairman of military contractor Blackwater is defending his company from "negative and baseless allegations" surrounding a bloody day in Baghdad, telling a House committee that its guards responded properly to an insurgent attack last month.
The Iraqi government says Blackwater contractors guarding a U.S. Embassy convoy opened fire on civilians in western Baghdad on September 16, killing as many as 20 people.
And a report issued Monday by the Democratic majority staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee found the company has inflicted "significant casualties and property damage" in Iraq while guarding State Department officials.
Blackwater chairman Erik Prince is scheduled to appear before the committee on Tuesday. In his opening statement, obtained by CNN, he tells representatives his company and its employees are victims of a "rush to judgment" about the Baghdad shootings.
"To the extent there was loss of innocent life, let me be clear that I consider that tragic. Every life, whether American or Iraqi, is precious," Prince says in his statement. But he adds that "based on everything we currently know, the Blackwater team acted appropriately while operating in a very complex war zone on Sept. 16."
Prince, a former Navy SEAL officer, founded Blackwater in 1997. Its business skyrocketed after al Qaeda's 2001 attacks on New York and Washington and the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan, where the U.S. government hired it to provide security in hostile areas.
In Iraq, the State Department has paid Blackwater more than $830 million to protect its officials since 2004, the House panel's report concludes.
"Blackwater personnel are subject to regular attacks by terrorists and other nefarious forces within Iraq. We are targets of the same ruthless enemies that have killed more than 3,800 American military personnel and thousands of innocent Iraqis," Prince says.
Blackwater has about 1,000 people, largely former American military personnel, working in Iraq. The company has seen 30 employees killed there during the 4-year-old war, but no one entrusted to their care has been killed or seriously hurt, he says.
"There is no better evidence of the skill and dedication of these men," he says.
But the company has come under intense scrutiny since the shootings in western Baghdad's Nisoor Square two weeks ago. They spurred an outcry among Iraqi leaders and a debate over the accountability of contractors -- who are not subject to Iraqi law for actions taken within their contracts, due to an order by the U.S.-led occupation government in 2004.
Quote:
Some might choose to pray, some might choose to snooze
But the style that I use is the style that's mine
Also, I didn't realize that Blackwater's head was so tied into the Republican party and the Christian right.
Paleo's posted about that several times.
"Sometimes I go around saying, 'Kommisar Paulson has seized the commanding heights of the economy!'" - Paul Krugman, asked if recent changes to banking are socialistic.
Since it was reported that Blackwater killed more than 25 Iraqi civilians in a seemingly unprovoked attack, it has also come to light that the security firm has numerous domestic contracts, including post-Katrina security and aiding in the drug war. What other domestic operations is it involved in?
*Providing logistics, intelligence, counterterrorism, surveillance, face-painting, and canine services for the Nashua Kids Day Out! Festival
*Authorized to use extreme force when keeping the greens at Pebble Beach squirrel-free
*Strictly enforcing "You Must Be This Tall" markers at amusement parks
*Reenacting Army Rangers' Somalia street battle in high school gymnasiums as part of Army recruitment drive
*Crowd control outside the Today show
*Ass-kicking as necessary to ensure success of No Child Left Behind Act
*Checking receipts at Best Buy
*Killing people who look like they're up to something
Quote:
Some might choose to pray, some might choose to snooze
But the style that I use is the style that's mine
But, but.... as they stand up, they're not supposed to actually, you know, assert sovereignity or anything. How dare they prosecute our fine mercenaries!
Seriously: good for them.
I think more details need to come out about what happened. This could be them exerting sovereignity to protect their people or it could be politics. I dont think enough has been released about what happened other than a car bomb went off, they say they were fired upon, and they returned fire as they were heading toward the 'safe-r' zone.
Was it excessive force or was it fog of war? Were they all civilians or were some of them part-time civilians using civilians as the equivalent of body armor.
I dont write this to protect Blackwater. I know very little about them, whether they are consummate professionals or John Rambo types. I find this a very interesting development and a sad news story. I'm curious what the expectations are for application of deadly force in response to a threat between private mercenaries and our armed forces.
Depends on how the facts play out, but these casualties seem to be getting a lot of government attention over the cacophony of daily deaths from car bombs, sectarian violence and death squads that they dont seem to do much about.
Xbox Live: Irongut | Playstation ID: Irongut_GWJ
The folks I know that have taken up Blackwater contracts have all been pretty professional, so I'm pretty sure this isn't a case of folks going Johnny Rambo. That said, I'm not sure that there is a whole lot that those folks can do that wouldn't result in civilian casualties and a public relations mess. They have no ability to tell friend from foe and they are responsible for the safety of the convoys they are protecting. If that means hosing down a bunch of mud huts with M2 fire... well... I guess it sucks to be occupied. Vae Victus and all that.
In any event, I guess it makes this particular Help Wanted ad a bit more difficult.
This is the internet! In our natural environment, atheists run in packs and have dictionaries! --- JoeBeDurndurn
That's always going to be a problem when the Blackwater guys order of concerns are 1) to get home alive, 2) get paid, and 3) worry about civilian casualties. I don't see them as bloodthirsty or reckless or anything, but they're doing a security job there for money. That's the nature of the beast.
Yeah, most guys working at Blackwater have impressive military backgrounds, but were skilled, smart, and cynical enough to take their skills on the open market. Given there are assholes driving around in their big shiny SUVs with their mirrored sunglasses, but those are the guys that end up on public display in Fallujah.
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
Spore
I blame this on the over-militarization of our mercenary corps. Clearly what we need is more mercanaries with Soc. degrees, and less ex-armed forces.
XBox Live: SwampYankee68
STEAM: SwampYankee
It'd be kind of nice if we had less ex-armed forces because our government was good enough to its soldiers that becoming a mercenary wasn't so appealing.
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
Spore
Sure, get all serious on me.
But yes, I agree.
XBox Live: SwampYankee68
STEAM: SwampYankee
I can hear the US Ambassador to Iraq right now:
"When we said you had to crack down on paramilitary militias, that's not what we meant!"
Xbox Live: hubbinsd
Every war has its iconic image in fiction. WW2 had a dirty GI Joe with a cigarette hanging from his lips. Vietnam had the muddy grunt with the cut-off sleeves and the joint. Iraq is going to have the Blackwater guard with his tan, not-quite-a-uniform flack vest, shooting glasses, and tooled up carbine hanging on one of those slings across his chest.
Just a prediction for the movies circa 2010.
Bravo, that gave me a laugh!
Xbox Live: Irongut | Playstation ID: Irongut_GWJ
And of course, in a counterinsurgency scenario, this is the exact opposite of the priorities you need in order to win. The first priority must be protecting the civilian population, even at the cost of casualties. It has been pointed out that to many Iraqis, contractors = CIA, with all the worst memes and connotations that go with that. It's been documented that in Fallujah the population was convinced that the contractors were CIA.
Remember: this conversation is just between you and me ... and the NSA.
MaverickDago wrote:
Thanks, hubbins, for a chuckle out of this....
I can't find it now, but there was a great quote in one of the online articles from someone who works with/knows Blackwater and its reps well, to the point that they used automatic weapons like firehoses but don't intend to kill people. That's a *very* rough recollection; but it was enough of a juxtaposition of attitude/action that it stuck with me.
To me, this is just another sad sidelight on our "outsourcing" the war we made.
"Eat Keel, Hellbug!"
Mercenaries operated in my country from 1920-21 in an attempt to suppress the uprising. They we're ex-Soldiers from the Great War and I do have some sympathy for them but "The Black and Tans", as they were known, are to this day hated and reviled in print and film. I've even seen my Grandmother curse like a docker when talking about them. Also to this day everyone considers them the British Army and not mercenaries. I suspect the same is true in Iraq.
SteamID: Coyler
Xbox Live: Coyler
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1662586,00.html
Not that TIME is the best source, but I thought this quote was telling:
If it does turn out that most of these people were bystanders, then it becomes clear that when they say "human life", they don't include Iraqi civilians. That's a situation that the U.S. needs to deal with quickly, so if things turn out that way I would expect Blackwater as a company to go away. I don't think the situation was that cut and dried though. The CNN article gives an indication that the scene was very chaotic. It is also apparent that at least some people dressed as Iraqi police were either insurgents, or real police who viewed the convoy as hostile. They also have information of destroyed vehicles at the site from another contractor convoy, and the convoy being blocked by an Iraqi quick-reaction force who were pointing weapons at the convoy. I think the one thing we can know right now is that we aren't being told everything that happened.
My personal take on this is that someone overreacted when the bomb went off, and started shooting at vehicles that got too close to the convoy (which I've read is SOP for the guard teams). When that happened, Iraqis at the site started shooting at the convoy, thinking they were being attacked - classic case of the fog of war in action. This is borne out by the Iraqi QRF clearly indicating that they thought the convoy was the threat, not insurgents in the area. It is a very good thing that both sides exercised restraint in that confrontation, or it could have been a lot worse.
Remember: this conversation is just between you and me ... and the NSA.
MaverickDago wrote:
Undoubtedly so. As someone who's only lived places where a "black & tan" is porter mixed with lager, I consider myself fortunate. The only use of mercenaries in America recently was Blackwater's participation in "Martial Law Lite" post-Katrina.
And in a clear demonstration of who is really in charge, Blackwater returns to work. Sometimes you have to wonder who was/is more obvious about their puppet governments, the U.S. or the Soviet Union.
Remember: this conversation is just between you and me ... and the NSA.
MaverickDago wrote:
Blackwater faces smuggling probe
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/09/22/blackwater.probe/index.html
Fedaykin98 wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
And, just to make things more interesting, the Iraqis are saying the whole incident was caught on video.
Remember: this conversation is just between you and me ... and the NSA.
MaverickDago wrote:
CNN interviewed the survivors.
WMV
MOV
XBox Live|Tshirts|xfire | Last.fm
I'm working my way through the book "Blackwater: The Rise of the Worlds Most Powerful Mercenary Army" and this goes and happens, go figure.
Excellent book by the way, it really brings the to the fore the question of who are these guys and just who are they beholden to over there. (No-one is the answer..) Also, there's an excellent look at how these types of paramilitary organizations that practically outnumber our enlisted men in Iraq are allowing our country to enter into more of these wars of choice, by severely limiting the amount of citizen responsibility in a war to paying the bill, or in this case, financing the debt to pay the bill.
Good book, check it out..
"War, it's gods way of teaching Americans Geography.." -Jon Stewart
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." - Howard Philips Lovecraft
The Army and the State Department are at odds over Blackwater because the army believes it's reputation on the streets of Iraq is being tarnished by what one officer referred to as their trigger happy behavior. Some money quotes:
"I personally was concerned about any of the civilians running around on the battlefield during my time there," said retired Army Col. Teddy Spain, who commanded a military police brigade in Baghdad. "My main concern was their lack of accountability when things went wrong."
"Many of my peers think Blackwater is oftentimes out of control," said a senior U.S. commander serving in Iraq. "They often act like cowboys over here . . . not seeming to play by the same rules everyone else tries to play by."
"Many of us feel that when Blackwater and other groups conduct military missions, they should be subject to the same controls under which the Army operates," said Marc Lindemann, who served in Iraq with the 4th Infantry Division and is now an officer in the New York National Guard and a state prosecutor.
At least we can rest assured that whenever a Blackwater mercenary kills a civilian he's fined $5,000 and loses some faction.
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
Spore
XBox Live|Tshirts|xfire | Last.fm
What I loved about that story was that the State Department investigation of the recent shooting incident was completed by interviewing Blackwater employees at the scene, and then written up by a contract employee of the State Department. Guess which company said contract employee worked for?
Also, I didn't realize that Blackwater's head was so tied into the Republican party and the Christian right.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/30/AR200709...
XBox Live|Tshirts|xfire | Last.fm
More fun!
Involved In 195 Shootings.
Blackwater Chairman Defends Company
Quote:
XBL Tag: Prederick
Paleo's posted about that several times.
"Sometimes I go around saying, 'Kommisar Paulson has seized the commanding heights of the economy!'" - Paul Krugman, asked if recent changes to banking are socialistic.
So they're charging $360k a year for the services of an experienced platoon sergeant. A guy probably making 40-60k in pay and benefits in the army.
Tee-Hee
Quote:
XBL Tag: Prederick