so blackwater usa has been getting a pretty bad rap…for a long time, actually. recently, blackwater “security guards” in baghdad opened fire on an unarmed civilian car. reports vary, but they all conclude that the blackwater guards fired without provocation, and some reports claim that in addition to firing automatic rifles, they fired grenade launchers and called in helicopter support fire. blackwater has defended the incident as “a proportional response,” claiming they were under attack from roadside bombs and small-arms fire and their guards had “returned fire at threatening targets.” this was, in fact, a couple and their infant baby–but they were driving on the wrong side of the road.
i mean, this isn’t surprising, is it? i mean, even disregarding their company history of excessive force, lying to dead employees’ families and allegedly smuggling weapons to kurdish nationalists–even ignoring that, their name is BLACKWATER! name a company after sewage containing fecal matter and then see what happens. it’d be like naming bluescrn…uh, pooscrn? that one fell apart on me, sorry. anyway, it’s like that [staples? office max?] commercial where the legal company changes their name to “D.I.N.G.B.A.T.S.” but with murder and mayhem instead of thirty seconds’ worth of dumb-exec humor.
