Comments on: Blackwater and co Iraq data-dump: mercenaries shot a judge with impunity, used bullets as hand signals, were not disciplined as this "would lower morale"

By: TheMudshark

TheMudshark — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:06:00 +0000

But we like you for your appreciation of sarcasm.

By: elix

elix — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 03:10:00 +0000

Someone needs to make a first-person shooter mod called “Blackwater: The Game” — your goal is to go around committing atrocities like this. For as many missions as it takes to get the point across.

Don’t politicise it. Just force the player to execute people in a NON-rewarding way (don’t make it a “hell yeah” game experience for entertainment — in other words, it should not be made by Call of Duty fans).

By: Seb

Seb — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:12:00 +0000

On their last album, ‘Wrath’, Lamb of God recorded an excellent song called ‘Contractor’ concerning the likes of Blackwater: http://youtu.be/rVEvNhg5FNI

The chorus and bridge are particularly apt:

Guaran-fucking-teed, Just sign the deed
Guaran-fucking-teed, Someone will bleed

Someone has got to die

Ours is not to reason why
Ours is but to do if the pay rate’s right
Black liquid assets fuck the mujahideen
Paint their picket fences red with the American dream

By: Jellodyne

Jellodyne — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 22:56:00 +0000

You’re thinking of the BlackBERRY guys!

By: SCAQTony

SCAQTony — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:36:00 +0000

They are indeed mercenaries; please keeping using that word for it is accurate.

By: RJ

RJ — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:18:00 +0000

Jesus holy fuck, I’ve seen some pompous remarks online, but this is the most pretentious, insulting shit I’ve seen in years.

No, man. The reason Americans seem to think our violent culture is alright is because so far, we haven’t run up against anybody willing to put us in our place.

The greedy, power-hungry sociopaths have free run of the country right now and will maintain that control until they are crushed into submission or death by some greater force. That’s simply what the situation is. Those mercenary idiots are just tools of the trade.

By: Noctilucent Studios

Noctilucent Studios — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:00:00 +0000

If only the rest of the US media had the sack to use the word MERCENARIES when talking about those scum, maybe the public opinion would have had a little clearer sense of things.

By: Mordicai

Mordicai — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:47:00 +0000

If only Solid Snake were real, he’d deal with these Outer Heaven PMCs.

By: M Carlson

M Carlson — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:42:00 +0000

Because if we didn’t laugh at it, we’d have to cry. And after the seeing the past 10 years of our country’s behavior, we have no tears left.

By: Gekko_Gecko

Gekko_Gecko — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:38:00 +0000

I dont know which is more pathetic. The publicly tolerated actions of American mercenary armies, or the total apathy from every comment on this article at the time of writing this post.

Why is shooting people considered acceptable, fun and something to laugh at?

Americans, at what point did you all lose your humanity?

What is *wrong* with you people?

Yours sincerely,
The Rest of the World.

By: bcsizemo

bcsizemo — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:14:00 +0000

“Their basic procedure appears to have been to shoot any car that attempted to pass or tailgate any of the convoys they guarded.”

….wonder if any of them were drifting.

Cause I might unload a clip on a Accord barreling at me doing 100+ all over the road.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRGfoVkOAkU

By: mzed

mzed — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:00:00 +0000

Although I’m sure that Blackwater deserves plenty of disapprobation, I think it wasn’t them in this particular incident. The paragraph with the subtitle “Well Gentlemen, We Shot a Judge” begins:

On July 16, 2007, a DynCorp (not Blackwater, but still) convoy traveling near Erbil fired five shots at a red Isuzu because it was driving “at a fast pace”… [T]he driver…was an Iraqi civil affairs judge.

edit: I see this has been partially fixed in the original post. Blackwater should probably be changed to mercenary the next two times in that paragraph, too.

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:56:00 +0000

Hey, you know how much ammunition costs?

Luckily the mercenaries were operating under a “cost-plus” contract, so every bullet they fired was like money in the bank.

By: Guest

Guest — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:55:00 +0000

By the sound of it, rightfully so. If Blackwater isn’t careful every sane/careful PSD will get thrown in with them in the “Mercenary” category.

By: angusm

angusm — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:49:00 +0000

You’re behind the times … Blackwater, er, Xe is now called Academi.

A friend who worked in Iraq, and who had nothing but praise for some of the private security details that protected her while she was there, said that the Blackwater PSDs were widely despised by most of the other companies doing similar work. The Blackwater mercs were seen, even by their peers, as irresponsible, dangerous and thuggish.

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:42:00 +0000

Hey, sometimes sacrificing a little freedom is the cost of protecting our liberty. Or maybe it’s the other way around, I forget.

By: Lobster

Lobster — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:40:00 +0000

Of course he got shot: he swerved into the oncoming lane! If he was just an innocent civilian he would have driven straight through that crater full of burning wreckage.

By: Lobster

Lobster — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:40:00 +0000

I think they’re on the other end of that equation.

By: Lobster

Lobster — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:39:00 +0000

Hey, you know how much ammunition costs? Plus those mercs have to clean their weapons after a day of shooting judges. Iraq should be THANKFUL.

By: ahmacrom

ahmacrom — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:35:00 +0000

Wait till these Blackwater dudes get held in detention for an indefinite amount of time ! That’ll smarten them up …

By: gtrjnky

gtrjnky — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:31:00 +0000

‘merican exceptionalism

By: mccrum

mccrum — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:19:00 +0000

Great point!!!!!! From now on I shall thank my lucky stars every time people get pulled over for speeding that they are able to drive off with only a ticket instead of the God-given right the police have to shoot them in the leg.

By: goopy

goopy — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:18:00 +0000

They won’t be for long. It’s been eroded away by the government in the name of safer country.

By: Steve Pan

Steve Pan — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:59:00 +0000

Maybe if they weren’t driving so fast they wouldn’t have been shot!!! Really guys simple as that!!!!!!

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:59:00 +0000

They hate us for our freedom. And our bullet-distribution policy. But mostly our freedom.

By: irksome

irksome — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:56:00 +0000

We will not be truly free until we too can shoot tailgaters and drivers using hand-held communication devices.

By: goopy

goopy — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:52:00 +0000

..yet some Americans still believe US is despised out of envy.