Washington Post asks if mercenaries should be remembered too.

[ColbertWatcher]

Poll question: Washington Post asks if mercenaries should be remembered too.

Here is the argument.

What do you think?

Do mercenaries deserve recognition on Memorial Day?

[imdjh]

1. Recognizing the contribution of mercenaries and privateers goes back to the Revolution.

[ColbertWatcher]

5. I think we've evolved since those times.

In some ways, but not all.

I prefer to keep those types of "originalist" arguments to r0N pAuL.

[imdjh]

6. I don't know what Ron Paul has to do with it.

During the Revolution, which we generally consider to be a noble cause, there were people who were not members of the military, many of whom had they been caught by the British would have been executed either for treason or as spies. The function isn't necessarily what these people contributed as much as what they put at risk. I don't see how we could consider it evolution to waive them all off, when we would not waive off those who risked less simply because they were in uniform at the time.

[ColbertWatcher]

8. Really? r0N pAuL is notoriously stuck in an 18th century mindset.

He claims to be a Constitutional "originalist" and asserts that's where all his decisions come from.

[imdjh]

9. Obviously you know more about Ron Paul than I do. But then I didn't bring him up.

And whatever he may or may not think has nothing to do with what I think.

[ColbertWatcher]

10. Like I said above: "I prefer to keep those types of "originalist" arguments to r0N pAuL." n/t

[OmahaBlueDog]

2. We'll remember them in 10 years when they come to Congress asking for Veterans benefits

I realize the whole idea behind the mercs are that you pay them a bunch of money today, and cut them out of the whole military benefits and VA down the road. Somehow, in the case of Iraq/Afghanistan, I suspect it won't work that way.

[ColbertWatcher]

4. Bremer and his bosses (Yoo?) made mercenaries exempt from any of the laws.

If they swore to take the same oath as the grunts, then they can get benefits down the line.

[mitchum]

3. Only if they pay me to remember them

[BlooInBloo]

7. Fuck confederates. Fuck mercs. And the fuck confederates one more time.

[depakid]

11. I think the Post and its owners, editors and writers should be remembered

for all the bodies that they maimed or buried.

Indeed- I wish on this day that each and every one of those at the Post who egged on Bush's war recieve in return 3 times the suffering that their actions brought on others.

J'accuse.

[XOKCowboy]

12. Not all contractors are mercs.

Many were truck drivers and other service personnel who signed up to provide a better life for their families. Many got killed because KKR and Halliburton cared more about profit than their lives.

No I don't believe that mercs should be memorialized on this day. People who were just doing a job I have a lot more compassion for.

[imdjh]

13. "one who served merely for wages" are we qualified to make that call?

Aren't we the same people who claim that part of the injustice of DADT is that it denies an often critical or only opportunity to an entire segment of society?

Can anyone argue that military service, even in peacetime, had been a path to education and the middle class for traditionally underprivileged people?

We can't say that a given soldier enlisted for the noble cause, and we can't say that a given contractor is nothing more than a pirate in service to the Crown.

[ColbertWatcher]

14. Interesting point, but it's too late for me to adjust the poll.

Perhaps I should have said that mercenaries don't deserve the same consideration that military personnel do because they take no oath to uphold any laws. Nor would they have needed any reason to since Bremer and his bosses at the GOP gave them free reign to do whatever the hell they wanted by making them exempt from any law. These mercenaries operated with impunity.

Oh, BTW, I seriously doubt that the Fundy Christian Blackwater would hire any openly gay people for their crusade.

[imdjh]

15. I wasn't aware that Blackwater was fundie or christian

But even if they are, I doubt that they make their hiring decisions on that basis. Give the character of those associated with them, I'm betting they would send their grandmother to Iraq if they could make a dollar off her.

[ColbertWatcher]

16. I think they would.

Here, I just posted a thread to provide Blackwater's dirty history (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5725353&mesg_id=5725353 )

[BigBluenoser]

17. Most "mercs" are former service members or feds...

So it is really the same people... just an error in timing when they get fragged that makes them a hero or zero. They should not be recognized as they are no longer under oath to the constitution (in other words they are not "loyal" to the USA in a direct manner).

Then again, the Merchant Marine WWII vets agitated for recognition for years (as a newish resident of the USA I am not sure if they got it here in the states or not.)

[ColbertWatcher]

18. I agree about taking the oath. Welcome to DU. n/t

[BuyingThyme]

19. What mercenaries?

[spanone]

20. no. they are businessmen.