Good. I want Blackwater to go belly up. I don't trust a paramilitary as part of our country; it's unconstitutional and very freightening. How telling that Germany can see the concern better than our own politicians.

I'll bet Heckler and Koch doesnt want it's gun's used in Black-water training programs like "Heckler and Koch Civilian Massasre" or "Blackwater and Heckler and Koch Iraqi Machine-Gun Bloodbath". That would probably bring a lot of unpleasant memories for the Germans who's forces used less than germain tactics during WWII.

Paul Miller writes: "I don't trust a paramilitary as part of our country; it's unconstitutional and very freightening."

While I, personally, don't trust Blackwater, and hardly trust ANY modern-day US administration to effectively prosecute a war, (none have done so since the 1940's), I have to differ on the Constitutionality point.

A large portion of the troops who fought in our Revolution were privately organized militias, who put themselves at the disposal of the Colonial governments for that purpose.
Private citizens, organized voluntarily into militia (paramilitary groups) are actually what is referenced in the 2nd Amendment preamble. That justification for the Right to Keep & Bear Arms was not about any 'National Guard' as some would have us believe, as the National Guard (or State Militias) didn't exist until authorized under the Militia Act of 1792.

The Bill of Rights had been drafted in 1789, and ratified in 1791.

What the FOUNDERS didn't trust, and found frightening was a large standing army, and they made no secret of that fact.

I can direct you to a sizable sampling of their thoughts on militias vs. standing army, if you're interested in the subject.

Please do, Droolius. I'll likely be snowed in tomorrow. Maybe I got this wrong, but I thought that idea of Blackwater having the capacity to operate as an army, coupled with their tie in to the Bush admin and his flouting of traditional checks and balances all boded ill for democracy. What am I missing here?

Please do, Droolius. I'll likely be snowed in tomorrow. Maybe I got this wrong, but I thought that idea of Blackwater having the capacity to operate as an army, coupled with their tie in to the Bush admin and his flouting of traditional checks and balances all boded ill for democracy. What am I missing here?

But Blackwater isn't just a "privately organized militia"--which has good reason to be defended--it's a privately organized militia *for profit*.

And while I can see the logic of allowing privately organized militias to form when the members are doing so to protect their life and liberty, I think allowing them to do so for profit is a mistake.

Mercenaries are highly useful in today's geopolitical landscape--but today's geopolitical landscape is frankly fucked, and needs to be changed, not allowed to worsen with increasing numbers of armies beholden only to the highest bidder.

My 2¢, anyway...

I completely concur with GetReal; BlackWater is hardly what the founding fathers had in mind when they spoke of a militia.

And besides that, if those Revolutionary militias were formed today they would be considered "unlawful enemy combatants". They were terrorists who hide among the civilian population. They were also cowards since they did not fight using the same tactics as the British troops (didn't come out in the open and 'fight like men').

["Please do, Droolius. I'll likely be snowed in tomorrow. Maybe I got this wrong, but I thought that idea of Blackwater having the capacity to operate as an army, coupled with their tie in to the Bush admin and his flouting of traditional checks and balances all boded ill for democracy. What am I missing here?"]

Your comment was that a paramilitary as part of our country was unconstitutional and frightening.
I was addressing that comment, specifically.
Our Nation using mercenary armies as part of an occupation of a sovereign foreign nation is a somewhat different matter.
That, I oppose in the strongest possible way, just as I opposed the initial invasion of Iraq by our own Standing Army, in contravention to the intent of the Founders regarding the use of our military forces.
Alas, far too few of our modern-day elected officials, Republican OR Democrat, seem to be in tune with the Founders on that principle.

Much of the Bush administration's antics bode ill for Freedom and Liberty, both here and abroad, but his administration is far from the first to overstep the limits the Founders intended.

Here's a whole page from Jefferson, quite a bit concerning either opposition to a standing army, or support for citizen militia, along the lines of what we know today as the Swiss model.
etext.lib.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1480.htm
Example:
"None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important, but especially so at a moment when rights the most essential to our welfare have been violated." --Thomas Jefferson--1803

An excellent article with numerous quotes by well known (and some, unfortunately, now forgotten) Founding Brothers:
www.fff.org/freedom/fd0409a.asp

"When the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British Parliament was advised by an artful man, who was governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people; that it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them; but that they should not do it openly, but weaken them, and let them sink gradually...I ask, who are the militia? They consist of now of the whole people, except a few public officers. But I cannot say who will be the militia of the future day. If that paper on the table gets no alteration, the militia of the future day may not consist of all classes, high and low, and rich and poor..."
--George Mason--
Virginia Constitution Convention

"Whenever governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins."
--Rep. Elbridge Gerry-- Massachusetts

Source of the two preceeding:
www.dojgov.net/Liberty_Watch.htm
(numerous other Founders' quotes to be found there)

An excellent article from the year of our Bicentennial: "Militia, Standing Armies, and the Second Amendment"
www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1495

Alexander Hamilton speaks to the issue in Federalist Paper #24:
www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers/fed24.htm

A page with numerous quotes on what 'militia' meant to the Founders:
http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/rkba/ff_militia.htm

Pleasant Reading!
D.S.