Originally Posted by Baba Ahmed
Somebody mentioned the book about Blackwater; yesterday I borrowed a copy from a local Public Library. I hope the following excerpt isn't too long.
"In the bigger ideological picture, Blackwater executives fancy themselves part of a '"just"' mercenary tradition. '"This is nothing new,"' asserted IPOA'S Doug Brooks. '"Even George Washington had contrators."' It is a line that Blackwater executives love. Indeed, they often cite the statues in Lafayette Park acrosss the street from the White House as monuments to their trade and tradition. In the middle of the park is a statue of President Andrew Jackson on horseback. Flanking the four corners of the park are statues of mercenaries who fought on the U.S. side in the Revolutionary War: France's Gen. Marquis Gilbert de Lafayette and Maj. Gen. comte Jean de Rochambeau; Poland's Gen. Thaddeus Kosciuszko; Prussia's Maj. Gen. Baron Frederich Wilhelm Van Steuben (the object of Prince Group general counsel Joseph Schmitz's obsession). '"The idea of contractors on the battlefield, contractors doing this sort of thing, that it's a new idea, is just wrong."' Erik Prince told a military conference in 2006. Citing the statues at Lafayette Park, Prince said, '"Those are four military officers, foreign officers, contractors if you will, that came here and built the capability of the continental army, the continental army was having a tough time until they showed up. On Von Steuben's statue it says he gave military training and discipline to the citizen-soldiers who achieved the independence of the United States. That's what we're doing in Iraq or Afghanistan, wherever we get hired and authorized to do so by the U.S. government, we're giving them the capability to defend themselves, and to clean out their own problems, so you don't have to send big conventional military to do that. You know, German mercenaries fought on behalf of the union in the Civil War, even won the medal of honor."' Cofer Black echoed the narrative: '"There is nothing new in this. What we are really talking about is the management of this for the good of the country and to acheive the objective. Lafayette Park could be called Contractor Park for our heroes that came to this country that trained us, trained our forebears."'***
- From Blackwater...pgs 375-376.
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***Baba note: my "forebears" were not either French, German, Polish, and definitely not Prussian!!! In other words the Project for a New American Century, nor Jimmy Carter's Global 2000 or Bush's "God is on my side" none of dat is talking to you Black folk; nor really about us! He's referring to his God; not your's. Nor is Erik Prince talking 'bout you when he says, "our heroes." Our ancestors were generally enslaved. Its about conflicts, battles, wars and struggles btween blood cousins! None who has ever been peaceful to you nor our ancestors. A new "European" is an old "Eu-rope-an" in shirts, neck ties and two piece suits, crowned with college degrees or should I say "Knighted?"
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