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A Special Christmas Message from Blackwater
Every Monday, Blackwater emails a newsletter to its supporters and potential clients called the Blackwater Tactical Weekly. Often it's a compendium of conservative-media pieces about how everything's awesome in Iraq, accompanied by a few quick company notes. But today's Christmas Eve. And during this season of reflection, the company would be remiss if Blackwater didn't place itself in its proper spiritual context.
Some excerpts:
GIVING... is something with which all Peace Keepers are very familiar... Giving time in ways that most do not understand... Giving up pleasures and presence of family to patrol streets, conflicts and battlefields... Giving up comforts that most take for granted... Giving companionship to a fellow Peace Keeper because you are together in the same endeavor at home and on foreign fields... Giving support to those in need of assistance... Giving life and limb, risking injury or death, so that the people they love and care for may continue to live in peace and safety in their world.
Of course, T.X. Hammes and other actual defense experts don't believe Blackwater and the U.S. military "are together in the same endeavor." Rather, Blackwater's wilding out makes things worse for the U.S. military in Iraq. But in Moyock, NC, nothing says Christmas like cynical exploitation of the troops!
These are the Peace Keepers... These are my Parish...We are in a season of good wishes and good cheer for most of us. Peace Keepers have to be just as vigilant this season as in any other season. Evil and tragedy do not take the day or the season off... but indeed they are ever present... and must be resisted at all times.
[snip]
Peace Keepers you have loved me without even knowing that I existed... You have loved to the highest degree of which the human being is capable... You have laid your life and being on the line of defense between good and evil and you do all that you can to stop evil where you are... and rush to the scene when you are not already there...
What Iraqi schoolchild doesn't recite the yuletide hymn, "Blackwater loves me/ This I know/ For the Blackwater Tactical Weekly tells me so"?
I am part of you by the call to service and by my response... and I know of no other more honorable place to be this day than here among you in spirit, even if I cannot be with each of you in presence.
It's true: there's no more honorable place to be than Moyock. Everyone at, say, COB Speicher surely agrees.
Comments (24)
greg wrote on December 24, 2007 12:36 PM:a new form of porn, repulsive in in its cynicism: violence as peace and democracy as a cash cow for mercenaries.
EdNSTed wrote on December 24, 2007 1:01 PM:Can I vomit now, or do I have to wait for the movie?
Erik wrote on December 24, 2007 1:08 PM:Blackwater, the new hi-tech armed christian militia for the 21st century. Read about Erik Prince and his family. Scary stuff.
W Action wrote on December 24, 2007 1:09 PM:Jesus died for your sins. Blackwater kills for Jesus. How fitting. Or something.
I'd say these people are sick, but since Bush and Cheney watched torture videos, passed them around and them destroyed them (they claim), Blackwater's just mainstream by the standards of today's GOP.
Anon wrote on December 24, 2007 1:22 PM:How do the steriods fit in? And the abuse of female employees?
Miles wrote on December 24, 2007 1:33 PM:With all this 'giving' of themselves that they do, it's almost as if US taxpayers aren't paying them five times what we pay our soldiers for the same work. Oh right, I forgot, they're not motivated by the money. It's pure unadulterated love of country.
gwpriester wrote on December 24, 2007 2:16 PM:Eric Prince and Ollie North. Separated at birth?
L Wolf wrote on December 24, 2007 4:31 PM:Next thing you know Blackwater will be the sponsor of the USA Olympic Water Boarding team.
Paulie wrote on December 24, 2007 4:32 PM:is using civilians as target practice a tradition that BW will celebrate this Christmas? Ah yes, corporate America at it's cynical and hypocritical best!
vox clamantis in red state wrote on December 24, 2007 7:45 PM:Corporate greed uber alles.
michael valentine wrote on December 24, 2007 11:33 PM:Blackwater International is the very open maw of hell that capitalism, left unchecked, turns into.
Political donations designed to propagate war, their bread and butter, protected by their right to free speech. Sweet.
Thank you Ana Ryan, Milton Friedman, Ronald Reagan and last but not least, George W. Bush. Turns out that the only nation building Bush believed in was fascist nation.
America, RIP.
swaidely wrote on December 25, 2007 12:18 AM:yes, Bush's private army has a softer side......awwwwwwwww
Isn't it quite a "coincidence" that Erik Prince and Rep. Pete Hoekstra (ranking member on the Select Intelligence Committee) are from the same small town in West Michigan and Prince actually contributes to Hoekstra's campaign?
PRINCE, ERIK
GRAND RAPIDS,MI 49503
BUSINESSMAN
9/21/1999
$500
Hoekstra, Peter
PRINCE, ERIK D
MC LEAN,VA 22102
SELF EMPLOYED/BUSINESS OWNER
3/31/2005
$1,000
Hoekstra, Peter
PRINCE, ERIK D
MC LEAN,VA 22102
SELF EMPLOYED/BUSINESS OWNER
8/24/2004
$1,000
Hoekstra, Peter
Maybe if Prince's brother-in-law, Amway's Dick DeVos, wins the governorship in Michigan (he lost in 2006) DeVos can privatize the State Police and hire Blackwater!
Pywiak wrote on December 25, 2007 11:06 AM:And lest we forget, it was Ronald Reagan in his own Orwellian turn that in 1982 dubbed the MX nuclear ICBM the "Peacekeeper".
The Deacon wrote on December 25, 2007 11:21 AM:Read todays St.Cloud times(web site)
swaidely wrote on December 25, 2007 1:56 PM:The truth will be learned.
Deacon:
Have you ever watched the Sopranos?
Even Tony Soprano did good things sometimes....
moondancer wrote on December 25, 2007 6:49 PM:Blackwater is the meeting of two mighty forces: the incarnate evil of the neocon world view, and the unbridled greed of GOP America. A corporation that has God on its side and a first strike capability.
seeyouinthepark wrote on December 25, 2007 8:17 PM:this company is the ultimate expression of bushism and must be excluded from government contracts as soon as bush leaves office. it's scary to think what prince and blackwater are doing to avert that outcome.
Johann wrote on December 26, 2007 7:49 AM:I've finally figured out what that biblical quotation: "Peace which passeth all understanding" means - Death.
Blackwater making peace in Iraq.
Distraught wrote on December 26, 2007 12:52 PM:" When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. "
Sinclair Lewis….
Joe wrote on December 26, 2007 2:49 PM:"Jesus died for your sins. Blackwater kills for Jesus. How fitting. Or something."
I think more appropriately, that should read:
Blackwater Killed Jesus for Your Sins
It fits.
NoOneYouKnow wrote on December 26, 2007 4:52 PM:Is there anything more powerful than the self-delusion of the Christofascist?
Steve Elliott wrote on December 26, 2007 8:52 PM:One day, there will be a movie made, a real blockbuster. This movie will represent Blackwater for what it really is, and was, during the Iraq War. This movie will represent pure Evil.
Son Of Liberty wrote on December 27, 2007 1:48 AM:Give these guys a break, they're precariously balancing their worship of Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter by proxy of Apollo. Your petty outrage is nothing compared to the wrath of the Olympians!
Billy wrote on December 27, 2007 8:26 AM:I noticed that this article doesn't link to the actual newsletter. I tried to find it in Blackwater's 2007 archive but didn't see it there. so I am wondering...
This reads so much like a parody, is there any evidence that it isn't just that? Just a big joke?