Washington Post asks if mercenaries should be remembered too.

ColbertWatcher

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Mon May-25-09 10:28 PM
Original message

Poll question: Washington Post asks if mercenaries should be remembered too.

Here is the argument.

What do you think?

Do mercenaries deserve recognition on Memorial Day?

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imdjh

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Mon May-25-09 10:33 PM
Response to Original message

1. Recognizing the contribution of mercenaries and privateers goes back to the Revolution.

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ColbertWatcher

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Mon May-25-09 10:41 PM
Response to Reply #1

5. I think we've evolved since those times.

In some ways, but not all.

I prefer to keep those types of "originalist" arguments to r0N pAuL.

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imdjh

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Mon May-25-09 11:57 PM
Response to Reply #5

6. I don't know what Ron Paul has to do with it.

During the Revolution, which we generally consider to be a noble cause, there were people who were not members of the military, many of whom had they been caught by the British would have been executed either for treason or as spies. The function isn't necessarily what these people contributed as much as what they put at risk. I don't see how we could consider it evolution to waive them all off, when we would not waive off those who risked less simply because they were in uniform at the time.

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ColbertWatcher

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Tue May-26-09 12:16 AM
Response to Reply #6

8. Really? r0N pAuL is notoriously stuck in an 18th century mindset.

He claims to be a Constitutional "originalist" and asserts that's where all his decisions come from.

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imdjh

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Tue May-26-09 12:21 AM
Response to Reply #8

9. Obviously you know more about Ron Paul than I do. But then I didn't bring him up.

And whatever he may or may not think has nothing to do with what I think.

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ColbertWatcher

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Tue May-26-09 12:22 AM
Response to Reply #9

10. Like I said above: "I prefer to keep those types of "originalist" arguments to r0N pAuL." n/t

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OmahaBlueDog

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Mon May-25-09 10:34 PM
Response to Original message

2. We'll remember them in 10 years when they come to Congress asking for Veterans benefits

I realize the whole idea behind the mercs are that you pay them a bunch of money today, and cut them out of the whole military benefits and VA down the road. Somehow, in the case of Iraq/Afghanistan, I suspect it won't work that way.

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ColbertWatcher

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Mon May-25-09 10:39 PM
Response to Reply #2

4. Bremer and his bosses (Yoo?) made mercenaries exempt from any of the laws.

If they swore to take the same oath as the grunts, then they can get benefits down the line.

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mitchum

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Mon May-25-09 10:38 PM
Response to Original message

3. Only if they pay me to remember them

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BlooInBloo

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Mon May-25-09 11:58 PM
Response to Original message

7. Fuck confederates. Fuck mercs. And the fuck confederates one more time.

Edited on Mon May-25-09 11:59 PM by BlooInBloo

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depakid

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Tue May-26-09 12:26 AM
Response to Original message

11. I think the Post and its owners, editors and writers should be remembered

Edited on Tue May-26-09 12:26 AM by depakid

for all the bodies that they maimed or buried.

Indeed- I wish on this day that each and every one of those at the Post who egged on Bush's war recieve in return 3 times the suffering that their actions brought on others.

J'accuse.

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XOKCowboy

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Tue May-26-09 12:33 AM
Response to Original message

12. Not all contractors are mercs.

Many were truck drivers and other service personnel who signed up to provide a better life for their families. Many got killed because KKR and Halliburton cared more about profit than their lives.

No I don't believe that mercs should be memorialized on this day. People who were just doing a job I have a lot more compassion for.

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imdjh

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Tue May-26-09 12:47 AM
Response to Reply #12

13. "one who served merely for wages" are we qualified to make that call?

Aren't we the same people who claim that part of the injustice of DADT is that it denies an often critical or only opportunity to an entire segment of society?

Can anyone argue that military service, even in peacetime, had been a path to education and the middle class for traditionally underprivileged people?

We can't say that a given soldier enlisted for the noble cause, and we can't say that a given contractor is nothing more than a pirate in service to the Crown.

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ColbertWatcher

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Tue May-26-09 01:43 PM
Response to Reply #13

14. Interesting point, but it's too late for me to adjust the poll.

Perhaps I should have said that mercenaries don't deserve the same consideration that military personnel do because they take no oath to uphold any laws. Nor would they have needed any reason to since Bremer and his bosses at the GOP gave them free reign to do whatever the hell they wanted by making them exempt from any law. These mercenaries operated with impunity.

Oh, BTW, I seriously doubt that the Fundy Christian Blackwater would hire any openly gay people for their crusade.

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imdjh

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Tue May-26-09 05:09 PM
Response to Reply #14

15. I wasn't aware that Blackwater was fundie or christian

But even if they are, I doubt that they make their hiring decisions on that basis. Give the character of those associated with them, I'm betting they would send their grandmother to Iraq if they could make a dollar off her.

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ColbertWatcher

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Tue May-26-09 06:02 PM
Response to Reply #15

16. I think they would.

Here, I just posted a thread to provide Blackwater's dirty history (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5725353&mesg_id=5725353 )

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BigBluenoser

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Tue May-26-09 06:19 PM
Response to Original message

17. Most "mercs" are former service members or feds...

Edited on Tue May-26-09 06:20 PM by BigBluenoser

So it is really the same people... just an error in timing when they get fragged that makes them a hero or zero. They should not be recognized as they are no longer under oath to the constitution (in other words they are not "loyal" to the USA in a direct manner).

Then again, the Merchant Marine WWII vets agitated for recognition for years (as a newish resident of the USA I am not sure if they got it here in the states or not.)

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ColbertWatcher

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Tue May-26-09 08:51 PM
Response to Reply #17

18. I agree about taking the oath. Welcome to DU. n/t

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BuyingThyme

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Tue May-26-09 08:52 PM
Response to Original message

19. What mercenaries?

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spanone

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Tue May-26-09 08:54 PM
Response to Original message

20. no. they are businessmen.

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