No! If profiteers' stock prices go down, the tare-ists will have won!

Hiring mercenaries in a time of war is against the Geneva Convention and therefore a War Crime.

I predict that our Reps will vote to keep committing War Crimes.

They provide a valuable service, there is not enough military in Iraq so they do important jobs.

You mean that all the Army cooks in Iraq will have to stop playing their gameboys and get to work.

This is an outrage!

This should be a constitutional amendment. And lock up Bush/Cheney when it's passed.

I like Pie @ 7:

You mean that all the Army cooks in Iraq will have to stop playing their gameboys and get to work.

This is an outrage!

Wow... words fail sometimes.

A day late and a dollar short. Actually, that should be 48 years too late and a trillon dollars short, but who's counting? Besides, why would a Republican today heed the parting words of a fellow Republican President? There's no profit in that...

Weaseldog @ 4:

Hiring mercenaries in a time of war is against the Geneva Convention and therefore a War Crime.

I predict that our Reps will vote to keep committing War Crimes.

Your only concern should be will your Rep vote for this bill. In the final analysis we vote for one Representative, two Senators, one President, and one vice President. You should concentrate one those people and not on MY Representative or Senators. If your not happy with your Representative or Senators get involved and do something about it. I have written my Representative and ask that she not only vote for but also co-sponsor the bill.

UU. got rid of "SOSA" before, he'll just get rid of this too

Bud @ 16:

Who's sponsoring this bill?

I smell a rat - as in, "if this bill passes and we can't outsource privately anymore, we *must* reinstate the draft!"

Who's got the cheese?

We should reinstate the draft. And the first list from which we should pull is a list of registered Republicans and their spawn.

RayC @ 20:

pissed off patricia @ 18:

My feeling is the Iraqis would appreciate our pulling out the blackwater cowboys who do whatever they please to whomever the please and answer to no one.

You would think that it is their country or something like that by that way of thinking.

I know RayC, sometimes I kind wander off the beaten path.

Imagine if blackwater was patrolling our streets and answering to no one.

I imagine all military people would support this. They probably hate blackwater as much or almost as much as the Iraqis do.

Awesome.

Dr. Know @ 24:

Forgot to mention, wouldn't it be swell if the GIs that make it home could do so with more than missing appendages, shell shock, and a bulls-eye painted on their backs. Things like job skills maintaining vehicles, computer equpiment, cooking, plumbing, construction, contracting, the list goes on and on. Axe the contractors, and not just Blackwater, et al. This is long overdue. Most of these companies were either on the edge of bankrupcy or newly formed to take the place of previous USGI workers. They are also mostly owned by ex-military, Pentagon and K-Street lobbyists. This has not been money well spent - and much of it should be returned from the profiteers who defrauded taxpayers of services poorly rendered or not at all.

This was Rumsfeld's idea of a leaner Army. What he failed to disclose was he was about to make many private contractors very fat.

Dr. Know, no problem about the remark about women from georgia, I just had to tease you a little bit about it.

tofubo @ 28:

pictorial representation of government contracting

http://www.neptunuslex.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/changeorder.jpg

I like that. :)

27 pissed off patricia Says:

This was Rumsfeld’s idea of a leaner Army. What he failed to disclose was he was about to make many private contractors very fat.

That should be "private contractors who support the PNAC/War Profiteering agenda".
I'm a private contractor and I didn't make a dime. But had I, you can bet these guys would have had clean food and water or heads would have rolled.

Dr. Know, no problem about the remark about women from georgia, I just had to tease you a little bit about it.

Figured as much, PoP. Besides, there are always exceptions to the rule -- perhaps you're one... ;-)
Do you still live in GA or elsewhere?

chris @ 6:

They provide a valuable service, there is not enough military in Iraq so they do important jobs.

Yeah, who else is gonna terrorize innocent civilians???

They provide a valuable service, there is not enough military in Iraq so they do important jobs.

Yeah, who else is gonna terrorize innocent civilians???

Aside from demonstrating just how poorly planned this whole debacle was, and a historically proven failure that should never have been considered.
The lack of accountability they enjoy was a baaad idea. It makes the troops (and the US) look bad (worse?), is endangering their lives, and probably pisses them off to no end when considering their paycheck at the end of a day. Not to mention the Iraqi view of the whole thing...

This bill was submitted in September of 2007, however. I don't think it is making progress, nor have I seen anyone mention it in session.

35 pissed off patricia Says:

I’m in Florida now. I left Georgia when I was a little kid. I’m a fast learner.

Now I'm really jealous. I've covered every inch of that state except the panhandle. Miss the ocean, birds, weather, and european tourists - but not the mobsters, Jeb, or Katherine Harris. But I repeat myself.
Many of my favorite blogs are Florida nature blogs.

37 p Says:
Man, even MACHIAVELLI in “The Prince” says never to hire mercenaries

"...if one holds his state on the basis of mercenary arms, he will never be firm or secure; because they are disunited, ambitious, without discipline, unfaithful; gallant among friends, vile among enemies; no fear of God, no faith with men; and one defers ruin insofar as one defers the attack; and in peace you are despoiled by them, in war by the enemy."

Hmmm....

Why?

Nothing endangers our freedoms as the presence of these hired guns. HOW FRIGGIN STUPID ARE THE CITIZENS OF THIS COUNTRY!!!