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

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Because if I don't say it, it'll drive me buggy

To the Blackwater employee who drew his side arm on his college to get him to stop randomly shooting into the crowd, bravo, good soldier. However, when someone goes gun-happy in a firefight that forces you to train your own weapon on them to get them to stop, they get one chance to return to sanity. Do not continue to try and hault them, just stop them from firing their weapon before they can shift focus of fire on your position. Just a thought.

2 comments:

Jim Wright said...

Well, when you hire mercenaries, you've got to expect a little random killing.

Private security, my ass.

Steve Buchheit said...

That a few abondonment of the fields.

NPR's Business show did an expose on former military becoming contractors (heard it on the way home).

I say if we're going to hire mercs, we do it right. Our guys get the cheese jobs (relatively) and live at the base, the mercs are the ones who need to crawl through the dirt looking for IEDs and live in country for weeks.

Seriously. Were paying more for them, they ought to do the crap jobs.

Also, combat duty. And change the contract to stipulate that payment comes after service, and only for 1) a job well done and completed (our inspection and determination) and 2) based on head-count for those that survive for longer than 8 months in country. Okay, that's a little harsh. I'll throw in partial payment for fully-disabled. Oh, proof of bond and insurance required up-front.