How do we the people get rid of companies like Blackwater Worldwide?

[quadriga]

Or are we stuck with them. Sidelined, having to watch them grow larger and larger without being able to do anything about them and the threat they pose to a Democratic society.

[MaryCeleste]

1. They are filling a need...remove the need and they will wither and die

[annabanana]

2. please expand on . . ."the need"

The need for an unregulated army for sale to the highest bidder?

[quadriga]

3. You give them way, waaaaaaay to much credit.

They fill no need. They are parasites. Erik Prince is a leech.

[MaryCeleste]

7. If they are not filling a needed, why are they being hired?

They are presumably damned expensive. No one would spend that kind of money unless it was a requirement.

I am not supporting their existence...but pointing out that they exist to fill needs not being met elsewhere, such as providing security to companies in Iraq. Remove those needs (leave Iraq) and the private armies go with them

[quadriga]

16. That need used to be provided by the U.S. military.

For a lot cheaper. They are around because republicans like to privatize everything to enrich the elites.

[morningglory]

17. Republic contributors. Simple. Get rid of the republic menace, and then...

No one would spend that kind of money unless it was a requirement. No, they (BW) are christian right republics and they need money(high, no-bid contracts). We have to rid ourselves of these leeches.

[HereSince1628]

6. Aye, there's the rub. They are protecting those who need them.

They are about to emerge as the Knights Templar of the Global Elite

Until the mercenaries acquire so much wealth that they threaten the royal houses of the Imperium they will remain a cancer growing on the body of humanity.

[Jack Rabbit]

14. It's not that simple

Have ever heard of created demand?

The sinister thing about Blackwater is that they have devised a business with a vested interest in war. They will support political candidates for national office who, like neoconservatives, believe that the best way to solve a dispute with another nation is to bomb and occupy.

We can insist that the federal government traffic no commerce with Blackwater or any other private business providing mercenaries for war. Regulation of such companies that are hired in war zones as private security contractors is also necessary to keep a trigger happy bunch of cowboys from shooting up the local population on behalf of KBR or ExxonMobil.

[kentj44]

4. privatizing the military

and using mercs is the worst thing to happen to the military.do you think for a second that our troops trust those people in the field?

[patrice]

11. I know I wouldn't. nt

[otherlander]

15. I'm as against privatization as any other DUer

but some systems are destructive whether they are privately or publicly owned. That needs to be focused on, too. It's not just privatization that's the problem.

[Snarkoleptic]

5. Make sure Wolfowitz, Perle, et al are kept as far from power as possible.

Including K Street, which will be their last refuge when we take back the WH.

[datasuspect]

8. insurrection and civil war.

[Clear Blue Sky]

9. Reduce/eliminate the demand for their services.

[annabanana]

13. Aha! got it!. . . Eliminate their clientele!

good for you.

[patrice]

10. Difficult but extremely Important question . . .

Vote out any elected representative that votes for spending our tax dollars on Blackwater. Work against elected representatives who spend our tax dollars on Blackwater by communicating widely and persistently in your area about the dangers of Private Killers. Form a speakers bureau to educate your community.

Negatively connect Blackwater to other issues that people care about. Make the case that Blackwater is Pro-Death not Pro-Life. Or show the financial impacts on vital government services.

[leftofthedial]

12. kill em and eat em

[undergroundpanther]

22. Eat them??!!..Yuck! No.

I'd say kill them than incenerate the bodies, and dump thier ashes in the toxic deadly pink waste ponds of factory hog farms like smithfield. Howabout that?


http://www.ethicurean.com/2007/01/02/smithfield-foods/

[supernova]

18. I think the problem isn't Blackwater

*putting on my asbestos shorts*

God knows I hate Blackwater and all that it represents. Yes, Blackwater and "businesses" like it (yes, it's not the only one) are in business to serve a need. But it isn't the one that you think.

The problem with Blackwater is the employees themselves. These are people who get out of the military... maybe they retire, maybe they are discharged with their stint is up.

They don't know what to do with themselves when they are no longer military. When they get out, they still, STILL want to keep doing the things they were doing in the military.

Blackwater would not exist without these guys who only want to see themselves as soldiers. It's like they have one track minds about and can't imagine themselves as anything else, the consequences or the morality of any given conflict be damned.

That's the real problem we will have to deal with, these knights errant, if we really want the Blackwaters of the world to disappear.

And it's not new. The same problem happened in the Middle Ages after the Crusades were over. All those soldiers came home and had nothing to do. So what did they do? They turned to terrorizing their own countries.

[RC]

19. You are making a lot of sense. Now add a few gallons of testosterone

[LiberalFighter]

20. Revoke their citizenship. Tax them on all their income.

Restrict where they can live.

[supernova]

21. That's punishment

which probably should be part of a larger package.

We've got people programmed for war and no way for them to come down from that.

I guess my question is how can we on a societal level positively redirect all that adrenaline and testosterone and put it to good use once the fighting is no longer necessary? If it ever was.

I'm starting to see it as the same issue as vets who come back with various disabilities and PTSD who don't get the healthcare they need. We simply don't spend the money on the backside of the war.

I don't think the guys who join Blackwater are sick so much (maybe?), but do need a serious deprogramming. How do we do that?

[cdsilv]

25. get rid of mercs? Easy - quit paying them. n/t

[undergroundpanther]

26. Cut them off, quit enabling,deny them their 'drug'and let them crash.

Let us recognize how sick such people are. From now on, when a national leader, or even just a neighbor, starts talking about some new weapons system which is going to cost us a mere $29 billion, we should speak up. We should say something on the order of, "Honest to God, I couldn't be sorrier for you if I'd seen you wash down a fistful of black, beauties with a pint of Southern Comfort."

I mean it. I am not joking. Compulsive preparers for World War III, in this country or any other, are as tragically and, yes, as repulsively addicted as any stockbroker passed out with his head In a toilet in the Port Authority bus terminal.


A word about appeasement, something World War II, supposedly, taught us not to practice: I say to you that the world has been ruined by appeasement. Appeasement of whom? Of the Communists? Of the neo-Nazis? No! Appeasement of the compulsive war-preparers. I can scarcely name a nation that has not lost most of its freedom and wealth in attempts to appease its own addicts to preparations for war.


And there is no appeasing an addict for very long...

So he has all the liquor thrown out of the White House, including his Aqua-Velva shaving lotion. So late at night he is terribly restless, crazy for a drink but proud of not drinking. So he opens the White House refrigerator, looking for a Tab or a Diet Pepsi, he tells himself. And there, half-hidden by a family-size jar of French's mustard, is an unopened can of Coors beer.

What do you think he'll do?

http://www.thenation.com/doc/19831231/vonnegut



And there is no appeasing an addict for very long

[undergroundpanther]

24. career bullies?

Who can't or refuse to stop. Are they addicted to the adrenaline rush of war, the power trip? Than maybe it's an idea to put these dogs of war to sleep if they cannot or will not live as peaceful citizens. If they can do nothing else but war why do WE have to start wars with other nations to occupy these bullies for? If they won't stop being "soldiers" when the war 's are over,and they will do anything to start another war to feed their adrenaline/power tripping addictions..Maybe we should retire them,for OUR sake. Maybe put them to sleep or let them fight each other to the death in a ring in a controlled environment. Somewhat like detonating a bomb in a controlled condition. Let them destroy each other until they retire themselves and remove each other.Perhaps that way no wars get instigated at the behest of these unrecognized adrenaline/power junkies.
http://joecrubaugh.com/blog/2008/03/19/how-to-recover-from-war-addiction/



However, politics is not about ideologies. It is about power--getting it, spending it, using it, abusing it, having it, losing it, and amusing oneself and others with the resources it provides.

Most of the current literature relating to politics talks about power. Goldberg, Cavanaugh, and Larson (1984) identified politics as one aspect of power. Tormont Webster (1987) defines politics as the science of power. Most scholars in all fields where power is considered define what constitutes power and delineate types and/or hierarchies of power. The term power broker implies that power is a commodity. An unidentified journalist claims that Castro, "after forty years of power," maintains his "unwavering addiction" to Stalinism (March 6, 1999, Economist p.22).


Based on my own case and in search of a paradigm to explain individual political evolution, I wonder if that addiction is due more to power than it is to ideology. While the connection between power and politics is well established and environmental factors have been known to lead to addictive behavior (Holman, 1994) , the question still remains: How does one become a "politician?" I believe one paradigm does relate to those of us who have done politics, but it is not a political communication theory. It is crime. You have to have the means, motive, and opportunity to do both.
http://www.acjournal.org/holdings/vol2/Iss1/articles/rosenthal.htm

One dry drunk!
One addicted skunk!
See how he rage!
See how he can do nothing else!
Peace and empathy was never his goal so
playin' bully causes his face to glow
and his manhood grow.
A vein in his brain he wants to blow!
If he can't be a soldier, he will terrorize his hometown, The abusive addict,looking for a fix.
Working for Blackwater...

[MisterHowdy]

23. A lot of angry people with pitchforks and torches.

n/t

[blm]

27. By demanding to be INFORMED as citizens with a right to OPEN GOVERNMENT.

There would be no way that alot of the crap BushInc gets away with could have happened without the protection of closed government and the secrecy and privilege they enjoy thanks to some powerful Dems who side with the powerful elite.

[Karenina]

28. Indict, Impeach, Imprison.

For starters.