Blackwater Black Marks

The fact that Blackwater mercenaries may have lost control and fired indiscriminently at citizens in Iraq is not surprising.  They are, after all, hired killers.  It's what they were trained to do.  It's what, no doubt, a lot of them look forward to doing.  After all, training is one thing, but unleashing a hail of automatic gunfire on live targets is quite another.

But, for a moment, put all that aside.  For the real shame lies elsewhere.

The shame and the sin is with a U.S. government which feels compelled to hire mercenaries to protect its own.  Can someone explain this to me?  Can someone tell me why we can't use our own trained military personnel to protect State Department officials?  

What's that you say?  It's because they would be culpable and would be responsible under the rule of law that governs both citizens and the military...even under the Bush administration?  Well, right you are.  Sorry I asked.

Sorry things have gotten to this point.

Sorry.