Posted by
Joel Aaron on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 12:09:00 AM
On September 16th, 11 Iraqis were killed and 20 more wounded in the gunfight involving Blackwater USA, a private contractor security firm that the U.S. State Department has been paying off to the tune of $1 billion dollars since 2001. The sticky issue Blackwater chairman Eric Prince seems to be working through now with the help of House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and his ilk is that Prince's organisation has been involved in 195 shooting incidents since 2005 alone. The NY Times reported that a bullet struck an Iraqi man driving his mother to pick up his father, a pathologist, at a hospital. The dead man's weight probably stayed on the accelerator and propelled the car toward a Blackwather convoy who opened fire on it, supposedly after getting spooked. The ever-sneering Maureen Dowd started playing connect the dots last week in her column with her explanation that some of the no-bid contracts from the State Department to Blackwater were based on years of support by Prince and his family for Republican candidates and specifically the President. With me, this registers a big, fat happy...SO? Would you rather be overlooked as a friend when a job comes up with one of your friends that is in your industry or be rewarded for your loyalty? All this confirms is that human beings do, in fact, like to support their friends when they are able. God, that is one sinister plotline! Add to that the no-bid contract debacle and you have D.C. tabloid material of the highest grade. Call me a simpleton but no-bids contracts sometimes come out of convenience by way of NECESSITY. If I need to get my package of curds and whey to Grandma by dinner tomorrow, I don't go bargain shopping for the cheapest and most value-driven option of all the options strewn on the landscape that is the residential shipping industry, I go next door and FedEx for $5 dollars more. I bet even Maureen Dowd goes back to her short list of contacts when a column is under a hard deadline.
But for politicians and journalists most adept at stumbling all over themselves to pass the buck, no one plays the "didjaknowit hand-in-the-cookie-jar" game better than John Edwards. He connected the lines of guilt by loose association to Hillary Clinton for her employment of Mark Penn, a PR man and her "primary adviser" according to Edwards, who is also representing Blackwater USA. Despite the fun subplot, Mark Penn in fact owns the PR firm Burson-Marsteller, he's not a politician. (Cue the cynic: Yeah, right, everybody's a politician). Nevertheless, pushing the cynic aside, Penn takes work from whence it comes. He gives strategic advice as it is requested of him by the dead president's that are wired to his business account. Is he responsible for making sure none of his clients, if linked together, screw themselves over in a political orgy? I think not. And as hard as it might be for we civilians to admit it, a war struggle where one's military is expected to honor Geneva Conventions and fight fair against a terrorist network not bound by those rules of engagement may need a little outside help to get the job done. Either that or risk the literal diplomatic fallout of diplomats falling out of convoys after the spray of gunfire or a roadside bomb.
Listen to The Hub Radio Show on Saturdays at 6PM on 920am WGKA. Streaming online at www.920wgka.com. For more information log on to www.thehubradioshow.com. Call in during LIVE Talkback segments at 1-888-920-2665.