Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army."

[Postman]

http://www.blackwaterbook.com/

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/20/1337226
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/21/1340210

[kenny blankenship]

1. Corporate armies need to be outlawed in US and International Law

One would think the already existing laws against piracy would apply and solve the problem, but apparently, not so.

[youngdem]

2. Seconded.

Flagless armies are nothing but trouble.

If you can't field the army, don't pick the fight.

Dems need to outlaw these companies ASAP.

[Blashyrkh]

5. Flagless army? Isn't that close to how Al-Qaeda was described?

[youngdem]

7. Yes. Yes it is.

[Dover]

10. Actually they have a flag....it's green with a big $ sign on it.

Corporations make the rules and profit the only motive. Of course they HAVE to buy their armies for such a murderous venture. And when the regular military personnel finally wake up to that then that will be the end of a national army. Then we'll see how many people are willing to be hired killers.

[Postman]

3. Capitalism drives the profit motive for more war when armies are made "corporate"

it also provides a "plausible denial" effect for administrations conducting their dirty deeds.

It also deny's the US citizens complaint of "they violated my Constitutionally protected rights" during "emergency's" when private armies are called in to "restore order" (since those complaints apply only to the gov't and not private companies)

[Selatius]

4. In an era where corporations threaten to supercede governments...

it seems natural that private (or corporate?) armies outside the existence of government armies would come back into being.

[HappyWeasel]

9. What if an orthadoxed enough democrat wins in 2008...

and Blackwater gets exposed? Are they going to terrorize the government and populace?

[Selatius]

11. No, they'll just wait until a Repub president and a Repub congress ascends to power once again.

Democrats can't reign forever, and these corporate types have all the time in the world.

[Larkspur]

6. They're the modern day version of the Templer Knights

The Bible says, "The love of wealth is the root of all evil." Blackwater fits that description.

[HappyWeasel]

8. So we are morally and financially supporting terrorists? Uh huh...

Sort of reminds of you of Shin-Ra from Final Fantasy VII, but these guys are very real and though they don't have force powers, monster-sized swords, or alien stem cells, they are still very deadly and at least as whorish.

[Crunchy Frog]

12. How, exactly, do these guys differ from a sectarian militia?

Great interview with Scahill on NPR last week BTW. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8992128