Paul Bremer is protected by mercenaries?

[aquart]

Blackwater mercenaries protect Paul Bremer, according to ABC. 15 percent of our contractors' costs are for security. We PAY for them to be there where they are not wanted.

What's wrong with this picture?

I can't help it. Protecting Bremer with mercenaries makes me feel he's doing something illegal. It just feels that way.

[alcuno]

1. There was a story recently about U.S. soldiers being paid

$23,000/year and the "private" contractors receiving $100,000/year for essentially the same job.

[sweetheart]

2. mercenaries are graduates

They are usually military and conflict (read: "war") graduates who
have the surivival and skills to be paid the big bux once they
come to discover they "like" killing people for a living. For
military people who are sick of the military stupidity, mercenary
careers are quite the rage. Ask any ex-military person about the
"offer letters" that are commonly sent by discrete mercenary companies.

In ancient japan, unanligned military samurai were called "ronin".
They would serve whomever paid them and do it with impeccability.
To suggest that simply by using mercenaries for security that one is
being unwise or unethical is misguided. Rather trusting the
institutional stupidity of the US military for protection is the
question that begs asking... and clearly Bremer is wiser having seen
the incompetence close up. It is our soliders who are getting
killed in iraq, not mercenaries. hmmm...

[Gin]

3. Blackwater is right over the Virginia border in Moyock NC. The dead

that were hung on the bridge were their employees....I guess if we pay for Bremer to be protected...we also pay for Chalabi to be protected. THAT really galls me.

[sweetheart]

4. Private militarism gall me

When we re-badge national troops in a corporation and call it
"private business" outside of the public scrutiny that miltiary forces
must abide by... that really pisses me off. Our own country has
designed its military services to not be answerable to the public,
yet we must pay for them... Grrrr.

Anyone who sets foot in iraq knows its a russian roulette game.
Maybe they'll be lucky and live... maybe not.

What really pisses me off are those kids who die who signed up to
defend america from enemies. The AWOL-criminal * is negligent
in the homicide of every single one... of every single iraqi civilian...
When he faces his war crimes before god, he'll i'm sure be shocked
to discover that he's a mass murder with less relationship with jesus
than a non-christian. Perhaps HELL is real, and bush'll be there
for millions of years.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

5. That's not the scary part --

the scary part -- per what Robert Fisk's been reporting -- is that mercenaries are now protecting the army!?!

(from an interview he did this morning -- see also Sunday's Independent:

"What does worry people is that Americans are replacing their troops at the Baghdad International Airport with Chilean forces which we know have been trained in the army there at the time of Pinochet. The real problem is we don't know what their rules of engagement are. We don't know where they stand vis-à-vis the war. If they are ambushed, do they fire back? If they kill innocent people are they responsible? Can they be made amenable to the law if they're guilty? At my own hotel in Baghdad, some of the security services have set up shop and they're young employees. They swagger in and out with heavy weapons, with automatic weapons and pistols as if they're cowboys. They seemed to have learned their fighting spirits in Hollywood. It's a little bit too much of, if I can put it frankly, spraying of testosterone on the ground. My colleagues feel this is making our own hotel dangerous and a possible target: undefended barracks. There are thousands of them, and it appears to be correct, there are now more British Mercenary Security Service men here than there are British soldiers in Iraq. The question many Iraqis were asking, is this the new face of the occupation? The Americans disappear, the British disappear, and this army of mercenaries wearing flak jackets and an assortment of weapons with little badges, some South African, some clearly British and some Americans are now supposed to be the security services?"

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/31/1616230

To the best of my knowledge Bremer (& Garner before him) have always had private security (f-knows why) but I'm not sure why I think I know that! (if you get my drift)

[Mojo7559]

6. Could be from Tibet!

There are a lot of men that come from a specific area of Tibet that are sometimes referred to as mercenaries. However, they are generally not used as hired murderers, but rather security details. They are almost always "behind the scenes" but these trained fighters are hired by dictators, high ranking members of state, and organizations such as the CIA. The CIA will use them to offer protection to their agents working in very hostile areas (Somalia, Columbia, Iraq, etc...)Their value resides in the fact that they tend to be very competent in their job and extremely loyal. So, if Bremer is being protected by Mercenaries, this is probably the group that is being reported. I know this because I once knew a guy that worked for the CIA and he told me when he was off in dangerous places he was always given a mercenary from Tibet for protection. He also told me that people like the King of Saudi Arabia use these men as protection (remember the loyalty comment? They would lose face with their villages if they were disloyal to their employer so there is zero chance they will be participants in a coup de etat). Sounds like a sweet deal for a seedy type of leader doesn't it? I have also read that it was these guys that chased Che Guivera up in the mountains of Bolivia. Of course, under the employ of the CIA. Could that be true???...maybe...but I can't see the CIA being smart enough to catch anybody. My next paycheck it is these guys that are protecting Bremer.

Note: I'm a history teacher and I like to inform people on things and events (not politics), but I am not a liberal. So, if you want to zap me, feel free. Your message board rules allow you to do that, but recognize that I have a lot of apolitical knowledge that is both interesting and educational. Good day folks!!
MOJO

[KG]

7. just keeps getting more and more fucked up over there.

don't it?