why we're worn out, and just waiting for the guard to change...

[lagilman]

WASHINGTON — Last fall, Blackwater Worldwide was in deep peril. Guards for the security company were involved in a shooting in September that left at least 17 Iraqis dead at a Baghdad intersection. Outrage over the killings prompted the Iraqi government to demand Blackwater’s ouster from the country, and led to a criminal investigation by the F.B.I., a series of internal investigations by the State Department and the Pentagon, and high-profile Congressional hearings.

But after an intense public and private lobbying campaign, Blackwater appears to be back to business as usual.

The level of disgust in Ch. Felidae is at Orange.

Comments

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty much too despairing to despair any more.

The Bush administration is wholly corrupt, top to toe, and nobody will do anything about it.

[otterdance.livejournal.com]

Icon= Laughing my ass off, but it's a pained laugh, because it might be true.

The State Department has just renewed its contract to provide security for American diplomats in Iraq for at least another year. Threats by the Iraqi government to strip Western contractors of their immunity from Iraqi law have gone nowhere. No charges have been brought in the United States against any Blackwater guard in the September shooting, either, and the F.B.I. agents in Baghdad charged with investigating whether Blackwater guards have committed any crimes under United States law are sometimes protected as they travel through Baghdad by Blackwater guards.


AHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRGGGGGG! It's a wonder my head doesn't explode reading things like this.

And we wonder why Iraq is so f*cked up. We can't even manage our own people. And shouldn't it be the job of the Marines to protect diplomats? Cultures that rely on mercs usually have one foot in the cultural grave.

Now, where was I? Oh yes. AHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGG . . . .

Well Said

[otterdance.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that thoughtful musing. Far more helpful than my outrage. :-)

I've just been watching the news, seeing the horror in Myanmar, the collapse of Lebanon, ongoing fighting in Zimbabwe, Somalia, Sri Lanka, etc etc etc.

The US has her share of problems and outrages, but I think we still exist because we are somehow constitutionally, and Constitutionally, suited to nudging for change instead of overthrowing everything. Given the choice, I will stay with our method. But we know that we have the right to throw the bums out if we can, and if not, wait another four years and they'll be gone. It's a good system.

That being said, though, Bush has wrecked untold havoc in his eight years. Whoever succeeds him—and please, PLEASE let it be a Democrat— will be inheriting one of the bigger sh*t storms in our history. I wonder how long it will take for the fickle American public to forget where it started and turn on the new guy/woman? It can't be fixed overnight. The next President is going to need to throw on a lot of brakes, and overturn a lot of wrong headed legislation, but there's a lot of juggernaut momentum to overcome.

And there's no way we will be out of Iraq by Christmas.

Re: Well Said

[lagilman]

*abruptly hijacks Laura's LJ on the flimsiest excuse*

Tis there to be hijacked. My energy is, as I said in the header, depleted by the endless demands this fuckup multi car pile-up of an administration puts on it. Firing off pissy and pointed e-mails to my congrescritters (bless their blue tailfeathers, for the most part) is all I can manage.

[debg.livejournal.com]

I Hate These People, # [insert number with many, many zeros at the end of it here].