Condemnation for Bill O’Reilly’s idea of using mercenaries to fight ISIS rather than using American forces has been fierce, but he can count on support from one key group: The mercenaries.
The man who founded and ran Blackwater—the company that sent thousands of private workers into Afghanistan and Iraq—says President Barack Obama should hire a mercenary corps to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria.
“The American people are clearly war-fatigued,” writes Erik Prince, now the chairman of Frontier Services Group, a company that provides logistical support for much of Africa. “If the Administration cannot rally the political nerve or funding to send adequate active duty ground forces to answer the call, let the private sector finish the job.” […]
The U.S., he implies, could save money by contracting out the ground war he believes is needed. “The private sector has long provided nations around the world with innovative solutions to national defense problems in a variety of ways, from the kinetic to the background logistical support necessary to keep militaries humming,” he writes. “If the old Blackwater team were still together, I have high confidence that a multi-brigade-size unit of veteran American contractors or a multi-national force could be rapidly assembled and deployed to be that necessary ground combat team.”
What could possibly go wrong?
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2008—Post debate thoughts:
In Isaac Asimov’s 1955 book “Franchise”, a supercomputer chooses a “voter of the year” to decide the fate of the election. Then, that person answers a series of questions which the computer uses to decide the results of the election.
Joe Sixpack thought he had hit the jackpot, but unfortunately for him, the fictional “Joe the Plumber” got the gig.Or at least, that’s what I learned from John McCain, in between his angry outbursts and snorting.
On substance, I actually thought McCain had his best performance thus far, when not distracting with his weird facial expressions and snorting. But still, Obama is on another level altogether. Perhaps if Romney or Giuliani was the nominee these would be fairer contests, but it’s not even close. And while McCain seemed better prepared than in the previous debates, tonight was also the wingnuttiest McCain has looked all campaign. All the veneer of being a moderate was stripped away as he derisively tossed aside the notion of “health of the mother”. The notion was a insult to his sensibilities!
Not that it matters. There was nothing here tonight that would change minds. Given that Obama has already broken 50 percent nationally and in the key battleground states, and that significant percentage of voters have already cast their early votes, McCain needed to radically transform the shape of the race. That means a homerun performance coupled with an Obama collapse. Neither happened.
I’m just spitballing here but maybe we could dedicate less resources to arming police for WW3 and more to infectious disease control.— @pourmecoffee
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Ebolamania continues. The decrepit, depleted chemical weapons that make RWNJs sure they were right. Feminist speaker gets death threat, but Utah law says they have to allow guns in the room, anyway. Joan McCarter notes SC rejects “Stand Your Ground” for domestic violence. Idaho’s resumption of same sex marriages, and PPP’s first ever poll in the state. Budget cuts & sequestration drained Ebola response capabilities. Election outlook mostly unchanged, but coverage gets panicky. Probably no Ebola sandwiches at Jimmy Johns. AFP is back at the fake voter registration flyer game, again. The impossible happens: gun criminals target non-gun-free zones!
