I've got no issue with hiring and using Blackwater contractors (or other companies) in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. My issue is with how they are used, how they are supervised, and how they are selected. If the company is hiring dirtbags then the supervision necessary to utilize them effectively will be more cumbersome than having an empty slot. And if quality personnel are selected, but are given the mission of getting their client from point A to point B safely, no matter what it takes, then there will still be problems.

My Soldiers showed tremendous restraint and thought about the big picture repurcussions of their actions, often without needing to be prompted by me. It had nothing to do with their oath, with the UCMJ, or with their uniform. It had everything to do with their training, selection, and (to a lesser extent, imo) their supervision. Some of them are now contractors and I expect nothing less than admirable conduct from them. But if their orders are of the "whatever it takes" variety, then I can see how they might assume that "someone smarter than me made this decision. We'll make it happen." Frankly, it is much easier to rationalize such a thought in light of our response to 4 contractors being killed, burned, and hung from a bridge in Fallujah. How many civilians were killed in our response to that? Certainly fewer than would have been killed had the convoy wasted 20 or 30 of them in a 360 spray-and-pray response to the ambush.