My hats off to those contractors who died however (majority former military)....just that the company and it's internal and external politics gives the US a bad name....
Posts: 6976 | Registered: Wed 27 July 2005 Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post Ignored post by scottrj50 posted Mon 17 September 2007 12:26 PM Show Post Previous Topic | Next Topic powered by eve community
Black water has way to much power in this war.Now since there out of Iraq, we must find away to tone down there power in our USA.
This is a great day wow, Thank god. I hope the Bush admin doesn't somehow get them back in. Oh well I guess this means some odd hundred million less for a conservatives nuts political means now. Not that Blackwater hasn't already made insane amounts of money to help support wars in the future to profit off of. Who wants to be we'll see less civilian casualties from now on if these goons are gone?
Support our Military not our Mercenaries. Too bad we can't take back all of blackwaters money and give it to the troops and their families. I think our boys deserve the 100k a month bullshit salaries much more than some conservative nut jobs Mercs do.
For all of your uninformed people here don't believe this BS. They are not mercenaries as some of you ignorant people have stated. They are contracted security personnel being used by the State Dept. because the State does not have enough DSS agents to provide protection.
They are used in other places other than Iraq as well.
So unless any of you have worked for them, or any other PMC you are just spouting BS.
Also, BW does not operate in Iraq under a license of their own. They are under the State Dpet. in this case, unlike other companies doing DoD/ ACOE reconstruction work and security. So this is nothing more than political posturing by the struggling al-Maliki. I suggest some of you do more fact checking and less posting of headlines that you aren't qualified to talk about.
Civilian contractor or not, Blackwater has performed missions that others wouldn't do. Be it Iraq or anywhere else.
Nobody in the chain of command cares when everything is going well especially when providing convoy security for a high profile individual(s), but when that convoy is attacked and those tasked with its security fight back, then the ROE gets tossed out the window especially when rounds are flying and lives are at stake.
As for innocent civilians being gunned down, who knows...Perhaps those "Civilians" were actually enemy insurgents dressed in civilian attire attacking that convoy in the first place. I'm sure these operators know the difference between enemy insurgents and regular civilians but its not up to the peanut gallery to cast stones or pass judgement in the first place.
As for the Iraqi Government banning BW from Iraq, "they" should get tough and get rid of ALL those radical Islamists like Al-Sadyr and those Jihadi's who are hell bent on destroying Iraq and the Democratic process in the first place. The Iraqi government can start with Syria and then move on to Iran if they want to get "Tough". Biting the hand that butters your bread will turn out to be a two edged blade.
Say what you want, Blackwater and other companies just like them are thugs that have not made the situation better.
YES, they are protecting people and convoys, but the jack booted tactics they use are doing nothing but causing hate towards Americans. Which by the way angers the people who then might help the bad guys who then kill more of our guys (and by that I mean the troops that make 1500 a month not 12k) No one working For our country should be above the law, we hold our troops to the law of war and the UCMJ. We should not allow these contractors to cowboy around and cause problems. Defend them if you want but they are wrong in thier actions and have caused lots of grief and pain for those of us that have been there.
One could say the same of the way U.S troops operated in Iraq as well. Especially those in the 82ND and 4 ID. They are not above the law and the State Dept. can prosecute them if they did something wrong, even in Iraq. They can also potentially be prosecuted under the MEJA Act.
I think you should direct your anger towards those in Iraq who deserve it like the insurgents. Contractors don't get retirement pay and medical or other bennies. Alot of time our medical insurance is almost 1000.00 a month. Not to mention the gear, uniforms, etc...that we often buy and have to replace.
Please define jack booted tactics? I can only assume that you have never done PSD or motorcade operations with VIP's. It is not the same as convoying KBR cupcakes to the chow hall. I would think that a 1SG of your experience would be a little smarter and knowledgable about the situation.
Where were you when LA. was going down the toilet? Sitting at Ft. Livingroom watching TV? Once again, they wer contracted to provide security and keep order when most L.E left the state with no protection.
quote:
Originally posted by 210arty: Heard these cowboys were "operating" down south during Katrina ,they need to be caged up.
While I was an intern at the State Dept in Diplomatic Security, I saw some of their records.........they are nothing special on the whole, but I do remember a few outstanding records.
....they have my respect nonetheless, I just do not respect their company.
The name Blackwater is synonymous with all the bad policies of Iraq....whether right or wrong.
Originally posted by FormerEmbassyMarine: While I was an intern at the State Dept in Diplomatic Security, I saw some of their records.........they are nothing special on the whole, but I do remember a few outstanding records.
....they have my respect nonetheless, I just do not respect their company.
The name Blackwater is synonymous with all the bad policies of Iraq....whether right or wrong.
Originally posted by Infantry32: For all of your uninformed people here don't believe this BS. They are not mercenaries as some of you ignorant people have stated. They are contracted security personnel being used by the State Dept. because the State does not have enough DSS agents to provide protection.
They are used in other places other than Iraq as well.
So unless any of you have worked for them, or any other PMC you are just spouting BS.
Also, BW does not operate in Iraq under a license of their own. They are under the State Dpet. in this case, unlike other companies doing DoD/ ACOE reconstruction work and security. So this is nothing more than political posturing by the struggling al-Maliki. I suggest some of you do more fact checking and less posting of headlines that you aren't qualified to talk about.
Neocons....always willing to fight to the last drop of someone else's blood.
Originally posted by Infantry32: Where were you when LA. was going down the toilet? Sitting at Ft. Livingroom watching TV? Once again, they wer contracted to provide security and keep order when most L.E left the state with no protection.
[QUOTE]Originally posted by 210arty: Heard these cowboys were "operating" down south during Katrina ,they need to be caged up.
[/QUOTE Where was I,with an artillery unit at Ft.Carson.LA going done the toilet ,too late it's been that way for years.If your going to provide protection for a US civilian,send a Servicemember that can be ID as one.Mercs look like better dressed criminals that have just invaded a surplus store.
I never read or heard about Blackwater till I read this article. But my opinion of security civilian contractors in Iraq goes both ways. First, if you’re doing security like convoy escorts my hat goes off to them because they escort the same thing military does. Whether is class 1,2,3 or any other class. But they escort them with SUVs versus a HMMWV. As those doing security over there in SUVs once an IED hits it there is no more SUV. So even though they are getting paid 100k a year versus military pay, there likelihood of surviving an IED hit in an SUV is none, that's why they roll 100mph. Eliminating 1,000 security employees I don’t see how that benefits us. I always seen it as that could be another 1,000 US troops on ground. I have noticed that it pisses off a lot of troops because of the pay difference, and I agree we should be getting paid more, but you can’t put a price on our service.
No on really knows what happened on ground with the incident with Blackwater but when the S*** hits the fan, the last thing your going to think about is ROE. They shoot you shoot is simple as that. At times especially in this operation civilians have a high possibility of getting injured or dieing. My mission for the year I was in Iraq was convoy escort, and many times you find yourself shooting into homes. All our missions where mostly at night, and you shot where the mussel flash or tracers where coming from and most of the times it was from houses and buildings.
Every group has bad apples so you can’t let a couple of bad apples ruin the entire group. Blackwater might have some cowboys, just like in my company while I was in Iraq had cowboys and we took care of them and made sure they where operating and abiding the ROE. But like I mention before the ROE goes out the window, a leader does whatever he/she has to bring everyone home safe. If you do that your done your job.
