Blackwater: Unlawful Combatants
Posted in H.L. News, Main Blog (All Posts) on October 15th, 2007 10:51 am by HL
America’s own unlawful combatants?
LA Times
Excerpt
WASHINGTON — As the Bush administration deals with the fallout from the recent killings of civilians by private security firms in Iraq, some officials are asking whether the contractors could be considered unlawful combatants under international agreements.
The question is an outgrowth of federal reviews of the shootings, in part because the U.S. officials want to determine whether the administration could be accused of treaty violations that could fuel an international outcry.
The issues surrounding the private security contractors are being examined by lawyers at the departments of State, Defense and Justice. Disagreements about the contractors’ status exist between agencies and within the Pentagon itself.
“I think it is an unresolved issue that needs to be addressed,” said a senior Defense Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the subject. “But if that is in fact the case, what the heck are we doing?”
HL’s Take:Yep, Bush is an unlawful enemy combatant. So by his own rules he should send himself to Gitmo, without charges to be tortured, and languish forever.
October 17th, 2007 at 9:08 am
Blackwater is the new mercenary army accountable to nobody except the corporations and governments who hire them. Keep in mind that Blackwater is now training hundreds of police departments across the US including the Los Angeles Police Department. All brought to you by the Republican and Democrat puppets.
October 22nd, 2007 at 3:38 pm
and how many of your beloved democrats use them when they go to Iraq? the same number of republicans that use them when they go, all of them. They are doing a job so that the military doesn’t have to. Which means that many less troops that have to be there. Now you are complaining about civilians that are doing the job and not the military because of the way they are doing it and that isn’t good enough either. Get used to the fact that we aren’t leaving Iraq until it is done. Every democrat has said that they are not going to pull the troops out so keep dreaming.
October 28th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
“They are doing a job so that the military doesn’t have to.”
No, the mercenaries are doing a job that the military doesn’t have TROOPS enough to do. There are slightly more “contractors” of various stripes in Iraq than there are U.S. troops there. Every one of them is doing something that would normally be military tasks, from providing security for American diplomats in a war zone to more mundane tasks like feeding the troops and washing their underwear. Face it, the all-volunteer military is far too small to be able to wage a war of any significant duration or any significant size. It just isn’t designed for it.
A good rule of thumb is that for a country that restive, 10,000 occupying troops are needed per every million of population in the occupied country, in order to have even a ghost of a chance at pacifying it. Which would mean for a country of around 26 million people, you would need about 260,000 troops on the ground occupying it, bare minimum, to have a chance at stabilizing it. Instead there are rarely more than 150,000 troops in country at any given time, FAR too few to be able to do what they are tasked with. Even the “surge” forces are going to have to be drawn down in the springtime, leaving them with even FEWER troops occupying it. Basically, Cheney and his regime bit off WAAAAYYY more than they can chew in invading and trying to occupy Iraq, and the world is seeing this.
An all-volunteer military isn’t meant for this. The answer though is most certainly NOT to reinstate the draft, but instead for America to have a (gasp!) less belligerent foreign policy that reflects the U.S. military’s smaller size.
October 28th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Solution: Don’t launch wars of aggression and you won’t find your all-volunteer military overstretched. Nobody made America invade Iraq, that was Cheney’s wet dream come true. Iraq was no more threat to America than Brazil but the whole WORLD was going to end tomorrow if the U.S. didn’t topple Saddam’s regime right? The right wingers in America must be the most easily-led, easily-programmed people in the world, if I may stretch the meaning of the word “people”.
October 29th, 2007 at 1:48 am
This band of criminals is dangerous. Wait until they come marching home and start patrolling the streets. They you’ll know we’re in deep doo doo. Another example of the destruction of Bush. War pig.
November 13th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
so!?