There's no real secret here, but many are probably unaware.

I've thought about it, but not maybe in my younger days. Family life tames a man.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...wnandoutint-20

 

It really does tame...

If I wasn't set to get married with a business opportunity at home I would have went with Blackwater after I got out. Now i'm just fat. My uncle's brother works for them too.

 

i saw a thing on frontline about the mercenary companies over in iraq....seems like pretty legit work, although dangerous

 

Coming from an actively serving soldier, my opinion is not fully formed but there are just to many negative indicators to against a guarantee that the Blackwater operation is nothing but hired help who abide every law and every order given to them, as an organization, from the General Military Authority. In other words, if Abu Ghiraib were a black eye due to unsupervised, immature soldiers, then Blackwater, which is not regulated by the Uniform Code of Military Justice, could easily become as corrupt as they wanna be and write their own rules with little to no retribution.

From everything I've seen and heard, there is certainly something more than suspect going on. The employees/operators that I know are pretty good dudes, but my concern is...you know what they say about absolute power. Further, if their funding is the same or similar to that of Kellogg, Brown, & Root then I'm absolutely of the mind that there's something amiss.

Further, and I'd have to research it on my own, but I am tremendously suspicious about who their chain of command would be. Obviously, the CENTCOM and the MNF-I commanders are the law, but if the chain that Blackwater is responsive to has the conduit of KBR in between them and the military, then that would lend itself to too much obfuscation and plausible deniability.

 

A buddy of mine recently finnished a year with Dyncorp (i think that's how you spell it) in Iraq. They lived in a huge mansion, and did dignitary protection the entire time. Worked rotating shifts in designated teams. Ate like kings, had a fully decked out gym, and partied their asses off when they wern't on duty. He came home with a HUGE paycheck. Made it sound very attractive.

 

If you really want your boss to be an "extreme right-wing fundamentalist" North Carolinan from old money...