Horrible! - Blackwater Inc. helicopter shot down outside Bagdhad!!

[patrice]

Everybody dead.

News on Air America.

[Goldmund]

1. Here's a link

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/04/21/iraq.main/index.html

[DulceDecorum]

60. ...'actually it is "fun" to shoot some people.'

Emails seen by The Observer reveal that employees of Blackwater Security were recently sent a message stating that 'actually it is "fun" to shoot some people.'

Dated 7 March and bearing the name of Blackwater's president, Gary Jackson, the electronic newsletter adds that terrorists 'need to get creamed, and it's fun, meaning satisfying, to do the shooting of such folk.'

Human rights groups said yesterday that the comments raised fresh questions over the role of civilian contractors operating in Iraq and other world flashpoints.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1451137,00.html?gusrc=rss

[ArkDem]

75. I asked my neighbor who just returned from Iraq as part of

Arkansas 39th Infantry what he felt when he shot an insurgent. His sickening reply was "Recoil".

[RetroLounge]

2. Yes it is horrible.

It is also hortrible that we are using Mercenaries to fight a war we should not be in.

RL

[tinonedown]

18. Yea, we know that already.

Why hijack a thread? Everybody here is anti-Iraq war. Let me read the freakin news about the chopper going down.

[Name removed]

34. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[RebelOne]

3. Isn't that the same company that the contractors

whose bodies were hung from the bridge worked for?

[patrice]

7. That's right.

[soleft]

4. But........we had elections.........

I wonder if this will have any effect on the recent Bush bandwagon jumpers

[sleipnir]

5. Mercs and a couple Bulgarians onboard.

Blackwater is nothing more than a legal Mercenary outfit.

That still doesn't preclude the horror of war, but these people are getting paid to be over there and take these kinds of risks. Most, because they can't find good paying jobs at home, thanks to Bush.

[patrice]

8. We are headed toward jobs fascism in this country.

I think I'll become a preacher (sarcasm).

[oasis]

46. I believe they prefer to be called, "soldiers of fortune".

:shrug:

[elehhhhna]

76. Yes and ANY one of them would shoot you or me for a paycheck.

[tanyev]

6. My local ABC affiliate just had a story on the

noon news and they said it was friendly fire. I don't see that in any of the online articles. Anybody else heard that?

[shadowknows69]

14. Friendly fire?

Understandable considering how many helicopters the insurgents have been using. Give me a break.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. Mercenaries are just a bit below cockroaches as life forms.

I hate war and violence and am saddened by anyone's death due to it. But, even high paid mercenaries should expect that people will shoot back.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[endarkenment]

11. You do understand that blackwater mercs

are paid 100,000+/yr to do 'wetwork' in Iraq, right? That these guys are frequently nothing more than hired killers? They are not soldiers ordered into war, good bad or ugly, they are well paid professionals out for the money doing stuff that nobody can talk about.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. Well, you must really admire mafia hitmen - if they're American of course.

Those guys are hired murderers. Just because they are Americans doesn't let them off the hook.

[warrens]

17. Mercenaries are useless, faithless and disunited

They have nothing to keep them in battle other than a meager wage

Which is just enough to make em wanna kill for ya

But not enough to make em wanna DIE for ya.


John Cale - Ready for War

[Withywindle]

22. Oh SWEET

...OT, but I love that song. The right reference at the right time is a beautiful thing. :toast:

[patrice]

35. Right on! n/t

[thebigidea]

68. ah, I can hear that lovely Welsh sneer just by reading that!

[Lars39]

19. I'd agree with you,

but I keep thinking about that one guy that joined up because of his wife's medical bills(cancer).
I wonder how many others jumped at the money out of sheer desperation, ignorance, and false sense of patriotism.

[SlowDownFast]

37. No excuse.

Become a merc/prof murderer so you can pay your dying wife's med bills?

No excuse.

[Lars39]

57. The guy I was thinking about was a truck driver.

But for all we know, they're jack of all trades over there.

[sidwill]

13. Heres a chilling thought.

We all know that war adversely affects the pshyce of the combatants and that after a war society has to reabsorb alot of mentally damaged men. The military provides at least some resources to help soldiers deal with the stress of combat and to reacclimate thems to civilian life.

But do mercenary groups like Blackwater offer the same mental health sertvices?

[cajones_II]

16. They don't need to

no one ever gets to retire

[ultraist]

24. Domestic violence in Fayetteville (military town) has skyrocketed!

The military does not provide adequate mental health services. There was a report on our local news last week that domestic violence rates are through the roof in Fayetteville, where there are a LOT of soldiers who have returned from Iraq. They are having to start up a new program to deal with the huge increase in cases this year.

It's already starting...

[Zinfandel]

15. Serves the Blackwater terrorist right! These fucking asshole American

mercenaries are killing Iraq people while making hundreds of thousands of dollars to do it. To protect Halliburton and other firms grabbing billions upon billions of our tax dollars, while exploiting the Iraqi people. These mercenaries don't give one shit about the people or the country...they are in Iraq for the money.

The Iraqi's want us out of THEIR country...But we will stay! As long as there is oil in Iraq (and Iran) we want to secure the oil for these same oil companies who keep showing tens of billions of dollars of record profits each quarter, because of the inflated prices at the gas pumps.

These hired Blackwater killers "contractors" are a fucking disgrace!!!

These American Blackwater killers, these are the real terrorist...killing citizens of Iraq (men, women & children) in their own country, for monetary gain.

[ultraist]

23. It's the US Government,not the low end hired guns that are to blame

OUR PRESIDENT and OUR MILITARY HIRED these killers and OUR TAX DOLLARS were used to pay them. Despicable.

[K-W]

48. The guilt of the government does not exaunerate the soldiers. EOM

[wtmusic]

59. they must feel TERRIBLE to be earning six figures a year

as hapless, unthinking pawns in the government's killing game! :eyes:

[bowens43]

20. Oh well.....

I have no sympathy for mercenaries.

[leetrisck]

21. Friends, family members, Americans, veterans

from all walks of life. Most seem to resent the money they make - not what they do. If any of you had any inkling of what you are talking about - which you don't -----

[NNN0LHI]

25. You posted: Friends, family members, Americans, veterans

Timothy McVeigh had or was all of those things also. Should I feel sorry for him too? Do you feel sorry for him? Do you have any inkling of what you are talking about? It sure doesn't seem like you do.

Don

[leetrisck]

26. I definitely know what I'm talking about

you absolutely do not. Do you have sympathy for bush? McVeigh has nothing to do with this and I'm hardly an admirer of McVeigh - he certainly doesn't enter the picture here. The people we are talking about come from all walks of life.

[Just Me]

27. They're private militia - killers for hire.

eom

[WLKjr]

28. mercs, they all go for one of two things

$$$$$ or Adrenaline

[Henny Penny]

32. wasn't it a senior guy from this firm

that gave a speech recently where he said that it was fun to kill sometimes???

Could be wrong, but anyone got a link for that?

[TexasUnderground]

42. No, it was a marine general

EOM

[DulceDecorum]

63. Link to Blackwater CEO "shoot for fun" memo.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1451137,00.html?gusrc=rss
or
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8449.htm

[Henny Penny]

71. Thanx

I wasn't sure but that has definitely clarified it.

Doesn't make it any easier for the families, but just interesting background on the company.

[Stirk]

33. And they all went *into* the same line of work.

Mercenaries.

[wtmusic]

52. Nazis came from all walks of life

I don't see your point. And *resenting* the money? Yes, I'm certain they are giving it all to charity for Iraqi orphans... :eyes:

[neuvocat]

29. So much for that retaliation Paul Bremer promised us, huh?

[goodboy]

30. Well, I don't care if they were mercenaries...the mercs have been killing

innocent civilians since they got there, they also make reeeeeeel goooooood money, (which we're paying them)

[KG]

31. more mercenaries dead?

too bad. :eyes:

[SlowDownFast]

36. So sad. Not.

Nothing but a bunch of mercenaries.

[wookie294]

38. Video aftermath shows one mercenary survived the crash

and was killed by gunfire....

http://www.ogrish.com/archives/2005/april/ogrish-dot-com-helicopter_downed2.wmv

[DS1]

39. Good. Fuck em. Live by the sword, go down in a Russian helo

by the missile. Perhaps the rest of Blackwater will get slaughtered too, good riddance to bad shit.

[Monty25]

40. Look at how the islamic warriors

bravely dispatches the wounded infidel asking for help in the video..

[JohnyCanuck]

41. Sort of like how the brave American GI dispatched the

wounded Iraqi resistance fighter laying on the floor in a Mosque.

[wtmusic]

51. Shhh...don't bring that up

you might induce logic.

[ovidsen]

47. I saw the video

and I don't like it when anyone's shot. But if you are a mercenary, that risk just comes with the territory. Sorry.

[K-W]

49. Who started this war?

Both sides are fighting a war, pointing a finger and saying "look at those barbarians" because tactics offend our sensibilities overlooks the key point. We are illegally occupying a foriegn country that we invaded ilegally.

Everyone who committed war crimes should be brought to justice. Both sides. After the US ceases its illegal war.

[Monty25]

54. technically..

The allahu akbar crowd started this war on 9/11/2001.

[eridani]

55. None of whom had jackshit to do with Iraq n/t

[Name removed]

58. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[DulceDecorum]

61. Technically, one needs to look closely at Thomas Barnett

and the work he was doing just before, during and since September 11.

[NickB79]

66. And have we caught OBL yet?

And where was he based out of? And have we caught him yet? And he and his organization had what to do with Iraq before we invaded it?

That's the indisputable point: Al Queda ONLY gained a foothold in Iraq AFTER we invaded!

[NickB79]

67. Dupe

Delete

[bvar22]

50. The DEAL is very different for Resistance Fighters ...

...in an Occupied Homeland. THEY CANNOT take prisoners.
Like it or not, that is Life & Death Reality, especially when the Occupiers take family members hostage or impose collective punishment on villages and towns.

The Resistance in occupied France didn't take German prisoners either.

[Goathead]

43. Do we have to say Blackwater? Let's just call it what it is: C.I.A.

[Monty25]

53. Damn Americans

Kill them. Right?

Allahu Akbar!

[DulceDecorum]

62. Blackwater's CEO told his men to "shoot for fun."

One of the biggest private security firms in Iraq has created outrage after a memo to staff claimed it is 'fun' to shoot people.

Emails seen by The Observer reveal that employees of Blackwater Security were recently sent a message stating that 'actually it is "fun" to shoot some people.'

Dated 7 March and bearing the name of Blackwater's president, Gary Jackson, the electronic newsletter adds that terrorists 'need to get creamed, and it's fun, meaning satisfying, to do the shooting of such folk.'
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1451137,00.html?gusrc=rss

How can you defend them, Monty25?

[daleo]

64. Damn Iraqis.

Kill them. Right?

Onward Christian soldiers!

[Monty25]

65. Of course!

Moral relativism of equating 9/11 style atrocities to American actions are what it's all about. Allahu Akbar and 'God Bless America' are the same.

[NickB79]

69. Yes, lets equate some atrocities

3000 American civilians killed in the Twin Towers because of radical Islamic actions.

Between 50,000-100,000 Iraqi civilians killed in Iraq in the past 2 yrs because of American military actions.

Moral relativism at it's finest.

[daleo]

73. You spoke very well, but l just want to add to our guest's edification:

Iraq had nothing to do with 911, as everyone including Bush, Rummy, Cheney and the rest of the Republican regime has admitted on numerous occasions.

Furthermore, get two moral absolutists in a room (say a Christian and a Muslim fundamentalist) and they will soon agree that they can't both be moral absolutists, without one of them being wrong. This whole charge of moral relativism is a canard.

[Kingshakabobo]

79. When are you signing up Chickenhawk?

[tabasco]

78. Why are you here?

Military recruiting is down.

BTW:

Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11. Even your glorious fuhrer Bush said so.

Are you saying you don't believe the words of Lord God Bush?!

[DemonFighterLives]

44. I'm having a tough time feeling sorry for them

They did what they did and got the same. :nuke:

[B Calm]

45. But... the queers can't be married in Kansas

[Sapphire Blue]

56. 11 die as Iraqi rebels shoot down helicopter

01:02 AM EDT Apr 22

The Islamic Army statement said it killed the survivor "in revenge for the Muslims who have been killed in cold blood in the mosques of tireless Fallujah before the eyes of the world and on television screens, without anyone condemning them." It was apparently referring to the shooting by an American soldier of a wounded Iraqi in a
Fallujah mosque on Nov. 13 during a U.S. offensive in the city.

In the video, militants come across the injured man in the flight suit. "Stand up! Stand up!" an insurgent orders the man, who reaches out and says "Give me a hand."

Then, apparently referring to a fractured leg, he says "It's broken."

The militants - unseen except in brief glances - tell him to stand up. "Weapons? Weapons?" the gunmen ask him in Arabic as he stands uneasily.

They tell him, "Go!", and he starts to hobble away with his back to the camera. Then there are voices and he turns to the side, holding up a hand. Then the shooting began, bullets hitting his body as he fell backward into the grass. The insurgents can be heard shouting "Allahu akbar!" or God is great," as he went down. More bursts of gunfire then hit the body.

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/050421/w0421118.html


"The law an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

- Mohandas Gandhi

[eek MD]

70. The loss of anyone's life is a tragic thing.....

Whether they're americans OR iraqis. Can't we all just "get along"...*sigh* :)

[BringEmOn]

72. Yes, what a shame

how many seats were empty?

[Beelzebud]

74. I wonder...

Will Bill Maher still be rambling off about this great new democracy in Iraq, tonight on his show?

Who slipped him the Kool-Aid, anyway?

[leesa]

77. Well, maybe they should get the hell out of Iraq? Too much money to steal

from the US treasury though, huh? No sympathy.