Blackwater Guards Fired at Fleeing Cars, [U.S.] Soldiers Say; [ Incident Called 'Criminal']

Wash Post ^ | Oct 12 07 | Sudarsan Raghavan and Josh White

[Jimmy Valentine's brother]

Guess Blackwater ROE is better safe than sorry. Military ROE is first call in and ask for persmission to unsafe your weapon then ask pesrmission to return fire. Oh yeah don’t kill any bad guy identified as wanted dead or alive either.

[devolve]

[anymouse]

Am I the only one who is troubled that the US government is funding a bunch of Rambo-wannabees who apparently have no accountability for their actions?

Yes. Next question?

Welcome to FR, troll.

Blackwater employees former Special Forces troops, who are the best of the best. Their job is to keep VIPs alive in hostile and uncertain situations. They get the job done. In case you haven't been paying attention to CSPAN, Blackwater has been raked over the coals and they have fired the few of their personnel that have done inappropriate actions.

It is too easy to "Monday morning quarterback" what they should have done now. I doubt that you could stand in their place for more than a few minutes without wetting your pants or soiling yourself, knowing that snipers, IEDs and RPGs may be waiting around the next corner.

[freedomdefender]

Devolve, you use the word, “troll.” Who and what’s a “troll” in this context? Me, because I posted a report on what US military personnel are saying about a Blackwater incident? Sorry, don’t think so. If you don’t want to know what the military personnel are saying about Blackwater, then that doesn’t make me a “troll,” it makes you an “ostrich.”

[freedomdefender]

It is too easy to "Monday morning quarterback" what they should have done now.

I guess you need to tell that to the US military personnel who are quoted in this story. Give them a good lecture about "second guessing" civilian contractors. That'll put em in their place!

[Proud2BAmerican]

I'm not surprised at all -- these morons are basically putting the lives of every single U.S. soldier at risk with their wanton slaughter of civilians. Because when they do that, they basically inspire the Iraqi populace to identify anything with an American flag as murderers just like Blackwater, increasing the chances of our own soldiers becoming casualties.

I have no sympathy for Blackwater after they murderered an innocent little girl in the back seat of a car at that square.

[Proud2BAmerican]

Color me more than troubled. It p****s me off to no end that these guys are mowing down civilians and in the process putting our U.S. soldiers’ lives in danger.

[Proud2BAmerican]

You can think something without actually writing it; I believe he was inferring from your comments to your line of thinking.

[roses of sharon]

LOL, yep, BDSers are easy to spot!

[Highest Authority]

If we didn’t have lawyers running this war, we wouldn’t need outside “help”!!!!!

[Allegra]

The PSC in Iraq come in a variety of flavors, but even among them all the Blackwater crew stands out with the image of being the most over-the-top in the Rambo caricature. They hang out of their helicopters with a foot on the skid and a harness to restrain them even when they’re flying in the safest of areas. Ordinary people would suspect them of flexing in their sleep to impress their lover.

You hit the nail on the head. And there are other incidents Blackwater has been involved in besides the one that is the focus of this thread. Plenty of others. They didn't make big splashes in the news, so I won't go into detail. You may know of some of them.

When they carry on like that, they inflame the public, hamper the diplomatc side of the mission and heighten the security risk for all of us here, even those of us who do not work for a security contractor.

[ElectricStrawberry]

....according to a report compiled by the first U.S. soldiers to arrive at the scene

...who arrived on the scene 20+ minutes after the fact.

[Grampa Dave]

Save your breath.

Do a search on how you/us are referred to Bush Bots and Neo Cons by this Ron Paul supporter.

Don’t you know that only real conservatives on Free Republic post articles from the Washington Post and Ny Slime and then trash the Freepers who ask what is this?

[Fledermaus]

So jumping to conclusions based on news reports is objective?

Or were you there?

[Mr Rogers]

Odd, the Brigade CC I worked for also believed there was such a thing as ‘excessive shooting’...in fact, all 3 Brigade CCs I worked with in Afghanistan understood that killing the innocent helped the TALIBAN.

That didn’t mean they didn’t understand war. 2 of the 3 were on either their 2nd or 4th tour of duty. But you cannot win against an insurgency by indiscriminate violence.

The professionals understand that - just as they also understand that mistakes will be made, and do not call mistakes ‘crimes’.

[sand88]

Blackwater employees former Special Forces troops, who are the best of the best. Blackwater has been raked over the coals and they have fired the few of their personnel that have done inappropriate actions. I read too that most of Blackwater employees are ex Special Forces. I am certain a vast majority of Blackwater personnel are highly professional and conduct themselves accordingly. They are usually in situations that could easily be flash points. Any criminal activity on there part of course should be punished. Since most of Blackwater is ex Special Forces, I am more inclined to take most media reports as another attempt to weaken our mission over there. The MSM will report NOTHING positive about Blackwater. If the media can tarnish Blackwater, they are in essences tarnishing ex Special Forces, and hence our military.

[balch3]

an example of the phony soldiers Rush was talking about.

[balch3]

So you’re calling the US Soldiers who made this report - and used the word, “excessive” - you’re calling them “Leftists”? I’m sure they’ll appreciate that.

---

unfortunately the military has been infiltraded by anti war, anti american leftists. Just look at the campaign against Rush by leftist vetereans.

[4woodenboats]

You're quoting a story written by one of the most notorious anti military, tresonous pig of a yellow journalist who has consistantly misqouted military personnel in a crusade to villify and ultimately imprison them, cherry picked and twisted classified information illegally fed to him by seditious REMF spies in our military in an attempt to further undermine the effectiveness of our military, and I don't know anything about his contributing writer, a Mr. Raghead.

You attack anyone who does not take this treacherous scumbag's word as gospel, and purposely attribute every word of the article to the military, instead of the author of the article, in an attempt to give this asswipe and the roll he fell off of some credibility, and steadfastly refuse to look any further or practice restraint until an investigation has been completed.

The short answer to your question is YES, that makes you a Troll.

[EagleUSA]

The professionals understand that - just as they also understand that mistakes will be made, and do not call mistakes ‘crimes’.
:::::::
Which is the professional and appropriate attitude about war actions. But the leftist MSM will not admit that, and will continue working to politicize every issue they can find relative to the war, since it is the ONLY issue they can bring to the table. They cannot enter the arena of normal debate of important political issues since they will lose, hands down. They are socialists, with an agenda that only includes POWER AND CONTROL of America, and has nothing to do with the real issues that face America, what is GOOD for America or what to do to defend and strengthen America.