To claim that Blackwater has "plans for world domination" is misleading, at best. Blackwater employees take an oath to the Constitution and see themselves as Americans patriots. (I don't think anyone would deny that this is true of Erik Prince.) So if they're interested in "world domination," - and that's a big "if" - it would be America doing it with Blackwater help, not Blackwater doing it for itself. And how can you claim that a company that requires its employees to take an oath to the Constitution is "steeped in an ideology that seems counter to democracy"?

Again it's true that Blackwater employees are better paid, but that's in part because they don't have to be retained when the conflict is over. The US pays its military personnel for a minimum of four years, including all the time they're not necessarily doing anything. The State Department concluded that it was cheaper to hire contractors than to build its own diplomatic security force, because start-up costs, especially this late in the game, would be far too high. So the pay issue is again, misleading.

On the question of Blackwater's equipment, the issue is primarily one of procurement: a private contractor has far less red tape to cut through than does the DoD. If there's outrage on this event, it should be that our boys in the military are not getting the things they need because of bureaucrats. Firing Blackwater would not speed up that process. (It should probably also be noted that the equipment issue is another oft-spun one. You frequently hear that Hummers aren't as heavily armored as they could be. Part of the reason is that additional armor would slow down the vehicle and reduce its ability to go through deep mud and things. I've met military personnel who say that don't want additional armor, for these reasons.)

And raising the specter of a Pakistan-style coup? Seriously... The parallelism hardly holds. For one thing, in Pakistan the coup came from within the military, not from a private military force. And Pakistan does not and never did have the level of democratic institutions that the US has. If someone really tried to stage a coup here, there would be countless hurdles and checks on such an effort. That's part of the reason it's never been tried, or even seriously attempted.

The State Department concluded that it was cheaper to hire contractors than to build its own diplomatic security force

Didn't Rome think the same thing?

I don't know about all that other stuff, but I tend to agree that the idea of a Blackwater Coup seems a little far-fetched.

You said," Blackwater employees take an oath to the Constitution and see themselves as Americans patriots."

So does the President, but it hasn't stopped him from doing what is unconstitutional when it comes to fghting terrorism. Do you really expect me to think Blackwater folks don't follow in the footsteps of their trusted leader?

Take a oath?

You mean like Scotter Libby?

American patriots?

If you think Blackwater is viewed that way by millions of Americans you are very deluded. Any support they have is very grudging--like they aren't good, but we need them beacuse we have not trained enough troops to do their jobs. If we did we'd have to institute a draft. That would be more unpopular.

Believe what you will, I think the Blackwater model presents a very real potential threat to our country.

Eric Prince is a political hack making billions. That's all he is. Hard to even concieve of him as a true patriot. If he were he would be more horrified at some of the murders his men have committed. Instead he insists he is always right and his employees are always right. The man has a mercenary's compassion. Then again he is running a killing machine, if he didn't wrap that in some flag how would he ever be able to live with himself?

Eric Prince is a political hack making billions. That's all he is. Hard to even concieve of him as a true patriot. If he were he would be more horrified at some of the murders his men have committed. Instead he insists he is always right and his employees are always right. The man has a mercenary's compassion. Then again he is running a killing machine, if he didn't wrap that in some flag how would he ever be able to live with himself?

You may not like Prince's politics or the party he supports, but to label and identify Reic Prince in this manner is both misleading and irresponsible.

The harsh truth is is that by serving as a volunteer in the U.S. military's most elite fighting forces, Prince is going to have a slightly different view of the world than say...a recent graduate of UT's College of Social Work.

Even when our troops are doing "humanitarian" work in Haiti or Somolia, they are usually directed to deploy to an area that is highly unstable and violence ridden.

The troop's mission usually involves making the are secure enough so that other non-fighting groups may operate. Sometimes you can buy off the warlords or insurgent leaders causing trouble, and sometimes you just have to deal with them. Most of the time, you wind up doing both.

Blackwater operatives are men who are taking advantage of very, very good salaries by undertaking an incredible amount of risk. They are also doing what they have been trained to do by our government.

If you have fault with that then perhaps your anger would be better directed at Pres. John F. Kennedy who started the SF and SOF services in the military.

Last I heard, American security contractors were making about $1,000 a day for working in Iraq.

He said that our troops would work really hard to "win the hearts and minds" of the locals, and then Blackwater would come in with their heavy-handed and frightening tactics and spoil it all.

First, if you've read Fiasco by Thomas Ricks, or other objective analyses of the Iraq war, you would know that "our troops," by simply following orders, have done quite a bit to turn the Iraqi public against us. Also, since Blackwater security personnel are retired special operation forces of the military, the conventional army has always had a great deal of disdain of unconventional forces, and I would imagine that the disdain grows in direct correlation with the salaries the contractors pull in.

I personally don't care who unleashed these dogs of war. I just would sleep better and feel prouder to be an American if these paid civilians in para-military garb were quickly put out to pasture. Let them go back to training people, but get them out of the war zones.

These "paid civilians in para-military garb" aren't the Good Ol' Boys recruited at the local paint ball center that you make them out to be. The Blackwater personnel are former soldiers from our elite ranks. They are not wannabes playing pretend.

The facts are that long before the Iraq war the State Dept., and other federal agencies, hired former special operation forces for diplomatic security. They were, and are, hired because they provide the best security. Period. If you wanted to hire people to keep you safe, then you would hire these people, and they would do their one job: to keep you safe.

Unfortunately, war has had a very distorted presentation in this country. Most simply ignore it, or ignore the specifics when they become too horrific or amoral for regular day civilians to understand. Some believe that you can wage war, while at the same time, following the best norms of civilization. I don't believe you can. Others, including Pres. Bush, believe you can.

I am not gung-ho about Blackwater. What I am saying is that soldiers follow certain codes that allow them to survive and to achieve their mission. It's only natural that our elite fighting forces also have codes that are much stricter and stronger than most of us could imagine, much less carry out, on a daily basis.

Whatever the Iraqi government has to say about our troops should be taken with a grain of salt, when even on this blog, the Iraqi force's loyalty, discipline, and committment to building a stable government is shadowed by the fact that at the moment, the government is merely a facade for Shiite factions grappling for power.