A Look down the Slippery Slope

[Tacitus]

Plus, since contractors are under UCMJ, anyway, what's the difference?

Is that really true? I heard some news this morning on the radio about a federal grand jury about to indict Blackwater people for their shootings in Iraq last semptember that left 17 dead. Maybe just some contractors, I don't know.

Nothing in this Washington Post story from today that discusses UCMJ being applied here at all.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...=moreheadlines

Apparently not all of the military likes this "rent a gun" approach, at least when the Dept. of State adopts it:
"The Sept. 16 shootings caused a rift between the U.S. and Iraqi governments and exposed Pentagon dissatisfaction with civilian security guards under contract with the State Department. U.S. military officials said that the contractors were "cowboys" whose actions put others at risk and interfered with ongoing military operations. State Department officials responded that the contractors were necessary because the military did not have the resources to protect U.S. civilian officials in Iraq."

[120mm]

Is that really true? I heard some news this morning on the radio about a federal grand jury about to indict Blackwater people for their shootings in Iraq last semptember that left 17 dead. Maybe just some contractors, I don't know.

Nothing in this Washington Post story from today that discusses UCMJ being applied here at all.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...=moreheadlines

Apparently not all of the military likes this "rent a gun" approach, at least when the Dept. of State adopts it:
"The Sept. 16 shootings caused a rift between the U.S. and Iraqi governments and exposed Pentagon dissatisfaction with civilian security guards under contract with the State Department. U.S. military officials said that the contractors were "cowboys" whose actions put others at risk and interfered with ongoing military operations. State Department officials responded that the contractors were necessary because the military did not have the resources to protect U.S. civilian officials in Iraq."

The Blackwater contractors in question were protecting CIVILIAN officials, and such, were not under UCMJ.

Those guys had nothing to do with the military.

State Department is also building a private army on their own, according to some friends I have spoke with, and I'm supposing they're planning on becoming more robust themselves...

And on the "cowboys" comment; I am firmly of the opinion that a certain plurality of the reason for hiring contractors in the first place, is someone to blame when the green-suiter screws up. The "cowboys" comment can be traced to a certain O-6 mouth-breather from nearly a year ago....