This is the dumbest question I’ve heard yet. What you think,….they operate over there all by themselves. No they follow rules given to them and they’re under the control of Gov staff personnel. This is like asking the question, “what if a group of gov employees decided to follow their own agenda?” They have no power and no decision making abilities. They conduct their statement of work as laid out in their contract.

#12 I think Obama is going to make Carter look good but if you disagree rest assured time will tell.

#7 He was pretty harsh about the results of counting on mercs rather than citizen troops. However as long as they stay outside the homeland and represent only a tiny fraction of your real forces I’d say the risk is less but if you let it grow…They can and have ruined people as has using auxiliary troops from other nations.

A major mistake made by both Carthage and Rome.

On the other hand arming tribal groups in locations you have no intentions of remaining may not be stupid…You just have to remember that it was Germans led by a man trained by the Romans and a veteran of warfare inside the empire that terminated a couple of legions for the Romans in Germany and of the course the Sepoys in India that revolted against the British in 1857.

Heck we used the Taliban as proxy fighters against the Soviet Union and gave them the surface to air rockets they needed to win. You can see how well that worked out for us.

#11 You’re shameless…

I see two possibilities

A) Obama is not actually in charge
B) Obama is just another fascist scumbag
C) Blackwater is a scapegoat so the US can say “hey it’s me it’s those guys.”

Second, the article complaining about Blackwater being given access to secret information is just plain dumb. The whole point of hiring a company like Blackwater is to skip all the crap that comes with involving the big army in any operation. This role is normally filled by SF dudes, but there just aren’t enough of them to go around. Give them the necessary freedoms and Blackwater can be many times more effective than any military organisation, but hamstring them by cutting away their information, and they become nothing more than very well paid security guards. If the company is going to be hired at all it needs access to this sort of intel.

third, #15
“Since Presidents no longer allow military victory it’s not surprising that when mercenaries like Blackwater perform warlike actions that might lead to victory they are quickly slapped down by politicians and the media.”

The blame is usually with the generals rather than politicians. Historically generals can rarely acknowledge that they are in an unwinnable situation. So the issue is not so much that presidents don’t allow victory but that generals insist on trying to punch above their weight.

Thats it for now, but im sure ill think of something else soon.

Since Presidents no longer allow military victory it’s not surprising that when mercenaries like Blackwater perform warlike actions that might lead to victory they are quickly slapped down by politicians and the media.

After all present political sensibilities require our enemies love us.

What a world.

Which British is that then? Stone age people? Picts, Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Normans? or all of them plus some of the more peaceful invaders in the last 950 years or so.

The Cheney administrations decision to outsource the combat dirty work to Blackwater fell short of results. Obama message to Blackwater is “You got the check, finish the job”.

And now we don’t have just a single, rarely accountable, military entity, mucking up the world. We have private mercenary contractor armies, that are completely unaccountable (thanks to Congress) and without security vetting. Personnel could just as easily be spies and enemies under deep cover. And apparently nobody really cares, anymore. They just care about the end results, or the money allocated to achieve it.

My only fear is that eventually, these taxpayer financed private armies, will someday be used by the Donald Trumps, the Bernie Madoffs, and the RIAA & MPAA, of the future. To protect their amassed billions, within their castles and mansions. While the starving hordes (aka the rest of us), look on. And we’ll wonder if we can pry a tiny bit of their ruling power away from them, by slaughtering their asses? If only their Blackwater knights we’re on the job. Damn our shortsightedness, for having allowed our taxes to fund their existence in the past. Or for foreboding the formation of any private armies, under US Constitution. When did that become a legal option?

First it was only the official military fought wars. Then Reagan and succeeding presidents allowed the use of National Guard. And now we’ve got private commercial armies? With less accountability at every stage. Who will they turn to next, the Mafia? Or will Blackwater become the next organized crime entity? Because they things generally run the cycle of becoming more corrupt, over time.

No we know why Obama won’t send more troops.