"There continues to be the need for this kind of security."

Recently I'd been thinking about how most of the characters I write are ultimately me in some way, and whether that means I'm not stretching myself as a writer. Maybe I need to write about the sort of person whom I have a lot of trouble understanding in order to challenge myself a bit.

At the conference, retired Army Lt. Col. David Grossman, author of the book On Killing and founder of the Killology Research Group, addressed participants in a hotel ballroom, pacing around with a microphone. He spoke of a "new Dark Age" full of Al Qaeda terrorism and school shootings. "The bad guys are coming with rifles and body armor!" he declared. "They will destroy our way of life in one day!" The world, Grossman said, is full of sheep, and it was the duty of warriors--the kind of men assembled at the Blackwater conference--to protect them from the wolves. "Embrace the warrior spirit!" he shouted. "We need warriors who embrace that dirty, nasty four-letter word kill!" (p.152)

That's from Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, by Jeremy Scahill. It may read like something out of Mack Bolan, but it's real, and--at least to me--it's terrifying. The book details the ways in which "civilian contractors" have, through the auspices of the Bush administration (Dick Cheney first became interested in privatizing military activities when he served as Bush Sr.'s Secretary of Defense), rapidly expanded in influence and numbers. The author estimates that the ratio of United States Armed Forces to mercenaries has evened itself to about one to one. Blackwater is perhaps the primary firm among them.

The list of worrisome issues swirling around Blackwater is a long one. There's the fact that their lobby has seen to it that "contractors" cannot be charged or tried for crimes in the field--not even by a military court. There's the fact that they recruit mercenaries who formerly served in regimes like Pinochet's Chile and Apartheid-era South Africa. There are the upper executives who were formerly officials involved in such unpleasant activities as Iran-Contra. There are the founders' extensive ties to the radical Christian right, the no-bid "black ops" contracts which Blackwater receives, and the myriad of ethical problems of war for profit. There's more. That's really just sort of the highlight reel.

Scahill traces the company's dizzying rise, not leaving out the context of the war (the chapter on Fallujah is particularly heartbreaking) and the political culture that made it possible. The book is, at times, a depressing read. But I'm glad of the light it shines into these corners, and for the insight into a mindset which I find pretty bewildering.

(Title comes from a State Department briefing, 4/21/2005)

Dave Has Two Moms?

Really, I'm only posting this for Celia's sake:

Who are your Star Trek Slash parents? by jenniferlupin
Name
Age
Your Parents

Via used_songs