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Blackwater: Mercenaries by Definition
By A. Alexander
10/17/07 "Progressive
Daily Beacon" -- --- Erik Prince, founder
of the Blackwater mercenaries, has been a huge financial
supporter of George W. Bush and the Republican Party. That might
explain why Mister Bush's State Department worked with Prince's
people to try and cover up the latest Blackwater slaughter of
civilians in Iraq, and could be a big part of the reason why so
many Republicans came to the chief mercenary's defense during
Congressional hearings. His fondness for and belief in all
things Republican probably answers too, Erik Prince's problem
with honesty.
Blackwater's Mister Prince has a problem with people calling his
mercenaries well ... err ... mercenaries. He appeared on CBS's
"60 Minutes," a onetime news program-turned Blackwater
infomercial, and said with a straight face, "You know the
definition of a mercenary is a professional soldier that works
in the pay of a foreign army. I’m an American working for
America."
Nobody is denying Erik Prince's claim of being a United States
citizen. But he wasn't being honest about his corporate
mercenaries, nor was he being completely honest about the
characteristics that define a mercenary. Mister Prince chose to
emphasize only half of the mercenary equation. Still, even then,
he was misleading.
Erik Prince's mercenaries make a great deal of money. They're
paid much, much, much more than the average U.S. soldier. Though
Prince chose to ignore it, a mercenary is also defined as
someone who is, "motivated solely by a desire for monetary or
material gain." Prince would probably insist that the people in
his employ are motivated by a desire to serve the United States'
interests, which he would further argue is Blackwater's singular
goal in Iraq. As far as Iraq goes, such a claim may or may not
be true? If it were true, everyone in Blackwater could have
joined the U.S. military. But obviously "a desire for monetary
or material gain" played a role in their choosing Blackwater
over the Army and the Marine Corps.
One wonders too -- as it relates to his men being hired out to
corporations -- how Erik Prince would defend his company against
the mercenary charge? Is the person defending an oil company's
platform in Africa doing it out of a desire to serve his or her
country, or is he or she doing it because the money is so damned
good?
Still, even by Prince's own definition, he and his employees are
mercenaries. "You know the definition of a mercenary is a
professional soldier that works in the pay of a foreign army,"
Erik Prince rationalized.
Certainly Mister Prince realizes that the United States military
is a foreign force occupying Iraq. From the perspective of the
few Iraqis who actually survive an encounter with Blackwater,
Mister Prince and his hair-triggered maniacs are professional
soldiers working in the pay of a foreign military ... the United
States military.
The point, of course, is that no matter how Erik Prince tries to
spin and lie; he and every Blackwater employee in Iraq is a
mercenary
Copyright © 2005 Progressive Daily Beacon
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