I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Monday, September 17, 2007

There go the profits

Blackwater has had their license pulled. Such are the vagaries of the merc lifestyle.

I'm sure the "government" will find some place to use them; hurricane relief, Dafur, coup de ta.

4 comments:

Jim Wright said...

It won't last. Mercenaries are just to dammed useful to this government - they aren't constrained by those pesky rules that govern the rest of us. Funny how our government has no trouble flinging great gobs of cash at them, but can't seem to pay real Soldiers a living wage, eh?

Steve Buchheit said...

Yeah, I've noticed that as well. So have a ton of snake-eaters. The US Government is the best damn training division Blackwater (and the rest of them) have.

It's hard to get to the specs on what happened (and Im at work, so even harder), but it sounds like Blackwater did another one of their typical convoy escort bangup jobs where they fire at anybody that gets close (even if it's people walking down the street that they decide to go sidewalk surfing on). As I remember, it was also Blackwater that was involved in Afghanistan where they rammed 8 cars to get their package through. One of those cars was the Afghani Minister of the Interior's vehicle.

Dan Berlyoung said...

Sadly, the 'license' that got pulled is actually a ineffectual law that Blackwater never actually signed on with anyway. The Iraqi government can't really enforce the law and Blackwater never actually signed the application for that license. Hell, Blackwater is better armed than the Iraqis. Who's gonna stop them? It sure ain't gonna be us.

Steve Buchheit said...

Dan, well, it does mean that Blackwater operatives can now be arrested for what they do (welcome to the world of private security contracting, if you thought your ass was hanging out to dry before, you haven't seen anything yet). And it signals that the Iraqi government isn't willing to let them just do what they want.