STOP BLACKWATER # 3 - Ugly, Ugly Americans

"The Ugly American", by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick was published in 1958 and became not only a bestseller and a movie, but also inspired Dwight D. Eisenhower to rethink American foreign policy. Unfortunately, America's self-serving destructive activities around the world have increased over the last 50 years culminating today in George W. Bush's illegal imperial wars in the Middle East.

America is seen by its global neighbors as a greedy, power driven nation whose disregard for human life is demonstrated again and again by its violent, bullying tactics. America, once respected and admired as an exemplary progressive society is now feared and hated. Fear and hatred are understandable considering that soldier-of-fortune organizations like Blackwater have come to represent America in the Middle East and many third world countries.

Blackwater USA, a private army of mercenaries employed and deployed to Iraq by Bush Republicans, has not only contributed to America's blackened image, but its founder CEO Erik Prince, corporate officers, and ex military contractor employees have also pulled a job on the American taxpayers.

One of the selling points of the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld plan to privatize the American military was cost savings. What a myth! Blackwater and other private militias have cost middle class and working class taxpayers billions of dollars more than the cost to support our regular military forces.

The majority of Blackwater's "security specialists" are harvested from elite military units like the Navy Seals, Delta Force, and the legendary Green Beret Special Forces. Each one of these real live action figures costs the American taxpayers a small fortune for the extended, specialized training they receive. After serving their country, a number of these expensive highly trained individuals have chosen to turn their backs on their fellow citizens and the soldiers in whose ranks they once served. American taxpayers are being forced by Bush Republicans to PAY AGAIN at an exponential rate when these same members of our elite forces become private contractor traitors.

While our legitimate soldiers languish and those wounded with TBI and suffering from PTSD still go without the care promised them by George W. Bush, Blackwater hired guns pocket more than $1,000.00 per day! The average Blackwater war whore spends more on the sunglasses they hide behind than most families pay for two weeks of groceries.



Taxpayer dollars have been diverted from providing much needed protective gear for our combat troops who anchor the occupation of Iraq. Recently, President Bush vetoed a bill that would have expanded medical care for America's children but is still paying Blackwater enforcers big bucks . We cannot afford to pay the obscene salaries demanded by these professional gunslingers. The "contract killers" use our money to buy themselves the best equipment available. Commandant Erik Prince has been using his chunk of the no-bid contract profit pie to purchase armored vehicles, bombers, ships, and land on which to build his very own forts. Blackwater does not support our troops - it competes with them!

Blackwater has been in the news ever since the September 16th drive-by murders of between eleven and twenty Iraqi citizens and the wounding of many others. Is it possible that something positive has risen from the violent, heartbreakingly tragic Nisour Square killings? Now, at long last, global attention is focused on ugly American Erik Price and his Christian mercenary army.

I cried when I read how Mohassin Kadhim, a passenger in a random car, cradled her son who was missing the left side of his head after being shot by a Blackwater aggressor. Ahmed was slumped in the driver's seat with his foot wedged on the gas pedal - the car drifted forward. Adrenalin pumped Blackwater contractors opened fire on the the moving vehicle killing Dr. Mohassin Kadhim. An Iraqi Doctor, she was unable to save her son or herself when targeted by the Blackwater USA. As if their deaths weren't enough, Blackwater lobbed a grenade into the auto coffin. The resulting fire burned so hot that the body of Ahmed Haithem Mohassin burned into that of his mother. When the fire finally stopped burning witnesses mistook what remained of the young man to be the body of an infant. See what ugly, ugly Americans do?

Earlier this week on October 3rd, ugly Republican Americans appeared at the Congressional hearings held to investigate Blackwater. While the question of the very existence of private for profit armies and the continuing murder of Iraqi civilians by those privatized militias needs to be throughly explored, members of the Republican party fell all over themselves to thank Erik Prince for his crimes. The boyish Prince was attaboyed ala Bush for doing a heckuva job on the Iraqis whose unfortunate deaths, according to the good Christian Prince, are mostly due to ricocheting bullets.

It was sickening to see how indifferent the Republicans were to the Iraqi deaths. They evidently do not see Iraqi people as human beings whose lives are every bit as valuable as their own. Perhaps they are as Christian arrogant as is fundamentalist millionaire, Mr. Prince, who supports replacing American democracy with Christian theocracy. Perhaps their Christianity encourages and even condones the murder of non Christians. Just look at what Jesus did to the Native Americans


Uglier still is the American hypocrisy that considers the Sunni and Shia militias in Iraq military targets while supporting crusaders like Erik Prince, who have have been forming religious based private armies on American soil for the purpose of enforcing their personal religious beliefs on others, both here and abroad. Can you say American Taliban?

The privatization of a nation's military is also a step toward that nation becoming a fascist state. Americans who value democracy and wish to protect the freedom afforded by our Constitution must stand against Blackwater and similar militaristic organizations. It is our money that is being used to murder people in other countries and our money that will enable private militaries to turn their guns and their killer instincts against the American people.


They hate democracy. They hate our freedom. But they sure love war!
Disband them. Dissolve them. Outlaw military privatization.


What if they gave a war and nobody came?
..............Kitchen Window Woman................

Note - We are spending the weekend in Potrero near the site of Blackwater's next military compound. There we will gather more information about Blackwater's threat to America, its impact on the local environment, and take part in a Stop Blackwater march.