[lit-ideas] Re: A rose by any other name...
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2007 00:51:25 -0500
I've been trying to give your the benefit of doubt. Your comments make it
sound as though you don't really know what Blackwater does.<<
Au contraire. It's you who apparently who is ignorant of the enterprise and
the threat to democracy represented by these private corporate armies. Read
this: http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/09/blackwater-back.html if you're
not afraid to learn something.
But I'm opposed to Blackwater and Triple Canopy and DynCorp and CACI and KBR
and all other private military companies on principle. If a country must go
to war to protect itself, then it must, but this hiring of paramilitaries in
unconscionable. It's evil. It's a blueprint for endless war. We would not
be able to be in Iraq today except for these "contractors." It wouldn't
make any difference to me if Jesus Christ was leading Blackwater or any of
the other Global Private Armies. Their existence debases humanity.
Mike Geary
Memphis
----- Original Message -----
From: Lawrence Helm
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 4:24 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: A rose by any other name...
There are less than two thousand of them in Iraq and they guard
dignitaries from the State Department. They are a security agency armed to
defend the people they protect. You are reading too much into the term
"mercenary." These guys have to be highly qualified because their defensive
skills are very likely to be challenged in Iraq.
Why you attack Americans defending State Department officials and not the
Jihadist who, unlike the Blackwater mercenaries ARE in the business of
killing people never ceases to amaze me -- although I should be used to it
by now: Americans = bad. Jihadists = good.
Lawrence, former Sgt in USMC . . . back then I think I earned about $30 a
month, but money is money; so I guess I was a mercenary too.
------------Original Message------------
From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, Sep-18-2007 1:47 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: A rose by any other name...
I'm always interested in Leftists thinking processes; so I'd love to hear
the steps you took to arrive at your position<<
This is your statement that I was responding to. I don't need any
references or web sites to support my opposition to mercenary enterprises.
I oppose them qua mercenary forces. Do you deny they are mercenary forces?
They don't. How you are able to square killing for money with Christianity
confounds me, but that's your problem not mine.
Mike Geary
Memphis
----- Original Message -----
From: Lawrence Helm
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 1:50 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: A rose by any other name...
Thanks for your references and all the web sites you posted to support your
allegations. That clears everything up.
If you check their web site, their favorite boast is that they've never lost
an individual they were assigned to guard. What talented people to manage
that in their spare time -- their main occupation as you say being the
killing of people.
Lawrence
------------Original Message------------
From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, Sep-18-2007 11:15 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: A rose by any other name...
LH
I'm always interested in Leftists thinking processes; so I'd love to hear
the steps you took to arrive at your position.<<
They are hired killers, Lawrence. They are in the business of killing
people, they have no other motive but making money. Self-defense, righting
wrongs, freedom, justice, democracy, etc. all those "noble" motives we cover
ourselves with mean nothing to these companies or to those who work for
them. Maintaining a military is probably a necessary evil, but evil none
the less. However, these mercenary companies are evil through and through,
there's no necessity about them whatsoever. They're a scourge to the human
race.
Mike Geary
Memphis
----- Original Message -----
From: Lawrence Helm
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 10:10 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: A rose by any other name...
Mike:
I've read a few reports and see nothing that would justify your outrageous
comment, Mike.
My morning paper carries a New York Times article by Sabrina Tavernise,
"Blackwater . . . had come under attack from Armed militants. The
'civilians' who reportedly fired upon by Blackwater professionals were in
fact armed enemies, and Blackwater personnel returned defensive fire,' said
Anne Tyrrell, a company spokeswoman . . . 'Blackwater professionals
heroically defended American lives in a war zone. . ."
"In the shooting on Sunday, initial reports from the U.S. Embassy said that
a convoy of State Department vehicles came under fire in Nisour Square, a
commercial area in western Baghdad that is clogged with construction,
traffic and concrete blocks. One vehicle became 'disabled' in the shooting,
officials said. . . ."
"But two bombs exploded around the time of the convoy's passage, and Iraqis
who were there said on Monday that guards in the American motorcade, which
had apparently been stuck in traffic, began shooting in response. That
appeared to be confirmed by the embassy's information officer, Johann
Schmonstes.
'The car bomb was in proximity to the place where State Department personal
were meeting, and that was the reason why Blackwater responded to the
incident, . . ."
"Mirenbe Nantongo, the embassy spokeswoman, said, 'Our people were reacting
to a car bombing.'"
As for me, it sounds like there were plenty of State Department witnesses
to what happened -- as well as uninvolved Iraqis. The Blackwater people
were protecting a convoy. If the Blackwater people did do something evil
then you've got to assume a gigantic conspiracy involving all the State
Department personnel and Iraqi bystanders to cover it up.
Lawrence
------------Original Message------------
From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, Sep-18-2007 2:10 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] A rose by any other name...
BLACKWATER -- has there ever been a more appropriate name for an evil
enterprise?
I predict that in the near future "Bush" will become a curse word even for
conservative Americans. Then Cheney will to Leahy say, "Bush you."
Mike Geary
Memphis
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