If anyone came to our streets and did here what we are doing in Iraq, I am sure we would not tolerate it. For that matter, we would not tolerate anything that is or has been going on over there for quite some time. We are seen as invaders (because we are), and they are seen as patriots (because they are defending their country!). We as Americans have been down this road several times. Unless we teach TRUE history to our children, we as a Nation will continue to follow the type of leaders we are stuck with at the present time, without questioning them. We should wake up, and act in a just manner towards others on a global scale. As Alan Greenspan recently stated, the fact is we are in Iraq because of oil. We have been so arogant to use the euphamism "national interests" as cart blanche to intimidate, interfere, and when necessary bomb and/or invade those with resources we claim as ours. When I was growing up that was defined as stealing.
An American life is no more valuable, nor less valuable than an Iraqui life. The big difference is, they did not ask for this conflict, we imposed it on them. We bare the FULL responsibility for any and all the actions of these contractors as well as military personnel. And before you question me personally, I am a former military officer and a retired servicemember- much more than you can say about 99% of those that call themselves National LEADERS!

Sent by William Gonzalez | 11:51 AM ET | 09-20-2007

NPR or someone needs to do a real solid follow the money story on Blackwater and other security contractors in Iraq. We know for sure the owner of Blackwater, Erik Prince, is a Republican and SOLID Bush backer. They have seen their pots of gold increase my millions, all at the expense of our red-ink budget.

As Bush threatens to veto the bill on childrens healthcare all the time killing people in Iraq so his friends can line their pockets. Shame on us as we allow this to happen in our name.

Sent by RandyT | 12:42 PM ET | 09-20-2007

Bravo, Mr. Gonzalez...!

Sent by Lois Cooper | 12:53 PM ET | 09-20-2007

My concern of Blackwater type of organizations is that they seem to be beyond the law, whether American or another country.

Also, while I recognize the right of having a militia I don't feel comfortable in there being an essentially private army.

Some may say that my following statement is extreme but the concern I have is that in my mind that Blackwater type of organization may have a parallel in the Brown shirts of 70 years ago!

Another concern is the apparent religious fundamentalism and white supremacist control of Blackwater. Is this possibly a reincarnation of the KKK in a legal form.

I remain open-minded about the necessity of having this type of organization but with the reservations previously noted.

Sent by Guillermo Herrera | 12:56 PM ET | 09-20-2007

Blackwater has offered to quell the controversy by changing their name. Blackwater has offered the Iraqi government ten name changes to chose from, whichever one the Iraqi government feels they can be more comfortable with:

Top Ten Blackwater Name Changes:

10. Exxon Rod and Gun Club

9. The Royal Order of the Poor Knights of the Barbecue.

8. NRA: Not a Real Army

7. The SMSF: The Sympathetic but Misunderstood Soldiers of Fortune

6. The IFNSDTA: The I'm a Former Navy Seal but Don't Tell Anyone

5. This Thing of Ours.

4. The BBGWSB: The Bad Boys Gone Wild on Spring Break.

3. The WRRTV: The We're Really Reality TV

2. The JBGOCCB: The Jeb Bush's Good Ol' Country Club Boys

And the Number One Name Change Suggestion Offered by Blackwater to the Iraqi Government:

1. Whitewater.

Sent by fred call | 1:15 PM ET | 09-20-2007

It is good to know that people who survived the shooting are coming forward. Perhaps the bullets that wounded them can be traced to either the weapons the insurgents have been using (as folks who back Blackwater say) or they may match the weapons used by Blackwater (as some Iraqis are saying).

Let's stop guessing at what happened and investigate this incident.

Sent by Jim Dodd | 1:40 PM ET | 09-20-2007

Randy, if you haven't already, check out Jeremy Scahill's, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army"

Sent by zenovian | 1:52 PM ET | 09-20-2007

In case you haven't kept up...Blackwater mercenaries buy their weapons on the black market. Black market weapons are rather hard to trace. Just like a Mafia hit man buys untraceable weapons on the black market. Why do you think they call themselves Blackwater? What? You thought these Blackwater Soldiers of Fortune were born yesterday?

Besides, an M-16 has a muzzle velocity of something around 3200 feet per second. Which means an M-16 round will pass through a half inch plate of cold rolled steel like it was tissue paper. M-16 rounds don't remain in a human body. They hit bone, begin to tumble, tear away at organs and then keep going into a building or a tree somewhere in the distance.

AK-47 hollow point rounds just generally explode inside the human body. Leaving very little to trace. But, when the weapon is bought on the black market, it has to be traced to either Korea or China or Russia or Great Britain or America or France or wherever AK-47 assault rifles are manufactured and illegally sold.

In fact, just about every make of this generation of assault small arms projectiles are designed to explode.

The five largest arms manufacturers and global distributors are the five members of the United Nation's Permanent Security Council: U.S., Great Britain, France, China and Russia. War is too profitable for them to stop.

Small arms weapons of war are genuine weapons of mass destruction.

John Scalise and Albert Anselmi introduced the tradition of coating a bullet with garlic. In case the victim survived the wound, blood poisoning would set in. Scalise and Anselmi were two of the gunmen at the St. Valentine's Day Massacre of 1929.

Gunshots are not pretty things easily traced like on television.

And when you have mercenaries video taping themselves shooting people, and that doesn't incriminate....??? What good does it do to do ballistic's checks. The mercenary will say he accidentally dropped his weapon and it went off.

As Rodney King said: "Can't we all just be friends?"

fred call

Sent by fred call | 2:18 PM ET | 09-20-2007

Blackwater is a mercenary army with no accountability. They are not held to the standards of the US military. In the US military, soldiers can be court-martialed (though it isnt likely) for "misconduct" like murder. Not so for Blackwater. They get a free pass.

And the Iraqi government cant do anything either, since the agreement the US puppet government signed essentially gives them immunity. So Blackwater is operating in Iraq and is totally unaccountable for their crimes. We wont see any prosecutions for this latest crime.

Iraqis are defending their country from the US invasion. After the latest crime by blackwater, they will be doing it with a lot more gusto. Gee, seems like this blunder might undo all the supposed progress claimed for the silly "surge".

Does anyone remember when this war was going to be a "cakewalk". Didnt Cheney say something about that? The insurgency was in its last throes some time ago, too right?

Blackwater laughing all the way to the bank with our tax dollars and no-bid contracts. Wonder if they are making as much as KBR, which gets paid $100 for washing a bag of laundry.

They are a bunch of criminals.

The Iraq war is the worst policy blunder ever. Its a very expensive, complete waste of money. But all Bushes buddies in the defense contacting industry are now rich.

Sent by dan steinberg | 11:13 PM ET | 09-20-2007

I, too, would like to say "Bravo" to Mr. Gonzalez & thank you for your service to our country. When Hitler annexed Austria & then demanded the Sudetenland in 1938, we now realize this as the appeasement of a dictator & the beginnings of World War II. Even though Hitler signed the Treaty of Munich on Sept., 30, 1938, he proceeded to invade Czechoslovakia in March 1939. Then in Sept. of 1939 he invaded Poland. We invaded Iraq in March, 2003 to topple a dictator & eliminate WMD. When that lie didn't pan out we said it was to bring "democracy" to the people of Iraq. (Un)fortunately, things didn't go as planned (Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Bush, Cheney et. al. weren't as competent as Hitler's war planners). But after a 4 year delay, the plan now moves forward to intimidate & attack both Iran & Syria. Just 2 weeks ago, our ally Israel, conducted bombing raids in Syria. We have drawn up plans to bomb 1200 targets (cities where people live) to totally destroy Iran's military capacity (infrastructure, bridges, electrical grid, water supplies) based on the logic that limited attacks would cause as much outrage as massive attacks. So let's just go massive even if it results in more collateral damage (the death of civilians i.e. men, women & children). Israel has similiar, if not as large scale, plans to bomb Iran. And despite all protestations of the current administration, Alan Greenspan has now let the cat out of the bag for the uninformed that the real reason for going onto Iraq was for the oil. So a war of aggression was launched against a state that was attempting to cooperate with the world community (the U.N. inspectors); is now acknowledged as a invasion of a sovereign state for its natural resources- oil. Sounds to me that Hitler is alive & well & practicing his dark craft at the helm of the United States government.

Sent by Geoffrey C. Gibbons | 2:46 AM ET | 09-21-2007

Back in 1996, a Valujet flight crashed into the everglades on take-off. When so far down into the much they never did find the fuselage or any of the survivors. Seems that handlers placed some kind of exploding canisters in the hold. The FAA said that was a no-no. But they said it too late.

So. What did Valujet do? Why, they changed their name to Air Trans.

Blackwater will change their name to Whitewater and it will be business as usual in Iraq.

Have no fear. Don???t feel left out, America. Blackwater/Whitewater will be patrolling your neighborhoods too. Assault rifles don't kill people. Mercenary cops kill people. Learn to get your rear ends on the far right side of the law if you plan to survive the future.

Fred call

Sent by fred call | 10:22 AM ET | 09-21-2007

Now that the Blackwater/Whitewater mercenary troops have had their moment of scandal, and everyone has stamped their feet, but Blackwater/Whitewater is still in Iraq.

And our Iraqi troop strength is overtaxed.

While the antiwar movement can't figure out a way to have Cindy Sheehan beat Nancy Pelosi because the war hasn't ended. And that the reality of typing is not really the same as protesting.

And our Iraqi troop strength is overtaxed.

As even the Democrat Paty Bosses can't convince themselves that Hillary can take more than fifty electoral votes in the '08 election.

And our Iraqi troop strength is overtaxed?

Sure, the General Betrayus line was cute, and the striking monks in Mayanmar was interesting to hear about, except most readers are saying "Mayan-who?"

And our Iraqi troop strength is overtaxed.

By the way. Did I mention that our Iraqi troop strength is overtaxed. A lot of people are wondering if there is a workable plan anywhere on the horizon. Because it's great to hear that General Motors is going to lose billions in this UAW strike. What American corporation isn't losing their butts except Wal-Mart in Beijing.

Not to forget mentioning all of Britney Spear's major problems.

But, can someone come up with some stories about what plans there might be in the works to alleviate our overtaxed troops strength in Iraq while Russia and China continue to arm Iran?

And it's beginning to look as though the best hope for the world is that a nuclear winter will cool down a global warming?

And for a while five thousand of our troops were going to come home. But now it looks as though they might not. Because our Iraqi troops strength is overtaxed. Or, did I already say that? And nobody is answering for a reason?

Does anyone have a real working plan on the drawing board anywhere? And does busting a steroid lab in China really help our troops in Iraq? And I'm really concerned about how Microsoft's Halo 3 will enhance our military strategic overtaxed problems in Iraq.

Is anyone in the media going to tackle the real problems our stranded troops are facing in Iraq? Or should we just continue to be worried about a fight between a church and the IRS?

While Blackwater/Whitewater can't be pulled out of Iraq because our troop strength is already drained past the fail-safe point.

Fred call

Sent by fred call | 9:48 AM ET | 09-26-2007