At least I know now that I wasn’t imagining lessons from elementary school. I wasn’t ingesting anything that had the potential to alter memories at that grade level. In future days when students learn about that terrible old King George, they won’t be talkin’ about the guy from the 1700’s anymore, if you know what I mean. He’ll be the chubby little quaint one that sent the redcoats over to the colonies and the current George will rank right up there with Hitler, Stalin and Ivan the Terrible, but won’t be considered half the man of any of them.

Is there some kind of bizarre karma linking Clinton’s “Whitewater” to Bush’s “Blackwater”?

WOW!! I never looked at it that way. Words have power and this is quite serendipitous!

Who’d a thunk it?

We’ll never get to “shitmire accomplished” like this.

ah, Orwell again: when mercenaries form a trade association, they call it the International Peace Operations Association.

Just the idea that mercenaries HAVE formed a “trade association” is scary enough.

The idea that this trade assciation and its “members” are expanding their “operations” so greatly is a mighty frightening look at our near-term future.

Next thing you know, some nutcase with billions of dollars at his disposal could even source these “members” for “operations” against or in the USA! You know – a highly organized, mobile, global mercenary force.

Wasn’t it Machiavelli (sic?) would opined that mercenaries are the best soldiers in the world cause they are fighting for profit and would never stick their necks into a situation that could get them killed? In other words, they are not fighting for honor, they are fighting for money. MOST dangerous indeed.

With all due respect to all of you wordsmiths and masters of the English language, it is “Colombians”, not “Columbians” because the country is called “Colombia” and not “Columbia” (like British Columbia). And yes, even though the 100 plus former military may be a bit unsavory, they were nonetheless conned by Blackwater’s Colombian agents in a classical bait and switch trick. It seems that their passports were taken away, they were threatened with expulsion from the Green Zone, and were asked to leave on their own, while they have no money nor plane ticket. They all agreed to protest and to leave, so if they stayed it was against their will. It should be noted that $4,000 US dollars is a small fortune for a run- of-the-mill Colombian. More details may be found in the Colombian press, which covered the story in some detail.

With all due respect to all of you wordsmiths and masters of the English language, it is “Colombians,” not “Columbians,” because the country is called “Colombia” , not “Columbia” (like British Columbia.) And yes, the 100 plus Colombians hired by Blackwater may be unsavory characters (probably all former military members, which is not, I think, equivalent to “highly ethical people”), but they do seem to have been conned anyway by Blackwater’s Colombian agents, in a classical bait and switch trick. It seems also that their passports were taken away, they were threatened with expulsion from the Green Zone, and invited to leave, for which many of them had no money nor plane ticket, so if the stayed it was against their will.For more details you may read the Colombian press, which have covered the issue in some extent.

It was mentioned upthread that South Africans are showing up in these mercenary firms. Yes, absolutely, starting with Executive Outcomes and spreading out from there.

Some of the South Africans in question appear to have served in SADF counterinsurgency during the late apartheid years, with units like Koevoet (”Crowbar” in Afrikaans) which had a reputation for exceptional harshness.

Another place from which recruits have come is Chile. There are a lot of old Pinochet hands who are not in jail, and who lack for steady work now that the General’s regime is no more.

I was reading the Japan Times before, and an article referred to Joe Lieberman as a Confession-box Republican. I thought that was pretty clever.

Holy Joe is both a closeted Catholic and a (poorly) closeted Republican? Somebody is gonna be pissed…