Did you know that the United States government is spending billions of dollars hiring paramilitary troops being used in clandestine operations as well as in the War in Iraq and even on our own soil?
It appears that the French Foreign Legion has had children as there are now several organizations in the United States and overseas that provide both trained soldiers and soldierly training. These private military companies (PMCs) offer support for governments and armed forces and facilitate the conduct of a broad range of activities that are often not public knowledge. The activities of PMCs can be conducted with or without the cooperation of our armed forces and when secrecy and lack of accountability are desired they are a convenient vehicle. There are no questions about the legitimacy of the operation, no one is concerned about casualties, the Geneva Convention can be forgotten, international problems are alleviated, and the source of the operation itself can be concealed.
According to an article by Laura Peterson “Since 1994, the U.S. Defense Department has entered into 3,061 contracts with 12 of the 24 U.S.-based PMCs…. Pentagon records valued those contracts at more than $300 billion. More than 2,700 of those contracts were held by just two companies: Kellogg Brown & Root and Booz Allen Hamilton. Because of the limited information the Pentagon provides and the breadth of services offered by some of the larger companies, it was impossible to determine what percentage of these contracts was for training, security or logistical services.”
U. S. supported mercenaries have been involved in Africa, Bosnia, and South America. They are being used in Iraq where 48,000 mercenaries working for 181 different firms are currently deployed. They were surreptitiously used along with Mexican troops to confiscate firearms in New Orleans after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Mercenaries have no inhibitions about depriving citizens of their Constitutional rights and, armed with AK 47s, they can be used by tyrannical governments for any selected oppression.
Most people in the United States have never heard of these organizations and are not aware that our government is conducting paramilitary activities that are not subject to the rules of conduct for normal overt operations.
Of the dozens of organizations that provide military type training and support, this article will concentrate on one that is of particular interest.
“Blackwater USA” is a multifaceted PMC with extensive training facilities in Northeastern North Carolina. They advertise their services as “the most comprehensive professional military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping, and stability operations company in the world.” Their Website is here. It was founded in 1996 by Erik Prince who is the wealthy son of Michigan auto parts manufacturer Edgar Prince and a former Navy Seal with extensive personal contacts in Washington. Edgar Prince helped Gary Bauer form the Family Research Council and his daughter, Betsey, (Eric’s sister) is married to Dick DeVos the son of Amway founder Richard DeVos. She is Chairperson of the Michigan Republican Party. The family is reported to have extensive personal relationships with James Dobson, D. James Kennedy, Edwin Meese III, Pat Roberson, Richard Viguerie, Paul Weyrich and others.
According to an article in The Nation, since June 2004 Blackwater USA has received $320 million from the Bush Administration to provide security services around the world. Blackwater flew mercenaries into New Orleans immediately after Hurricane Katrina before contracts had been formalized. Ultimately, the Bush Administration paid them $30 million.
Christian theology provides the platform for much of the tragedy that is involved when followers of The Prince Of Peace involve themselves in aiding an imperialistic government in illegal conquests.
Former New York Times Middle East Bureau Chief, Chris Hedges, has published a new book “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America” . He spent two years traveling around the country seeking the tenor of Christendom. He quickly dredges up the demon of the theocratic state and expresses concern that the evils involved with the hiring of mercenaries could result in the imposition of Christianity on the nation. He goes on to describe Christian vigilantes that occupy high level positions in the Bush II Administration, Army Generals who claim their Faith is their first priority and who cherish the opportunity to evangelize men and women involved with our defense policy. “I think it’s a huge impact…. You have many men and women who are seeking God’s counsel and wisdom as they advise the chairman [of the Joint Chiefs] and the secretary of defense.”
Of the many Evangelical churches he attended Hedges writes, “They painted the war in Iraq not as an occupation but as an apocalyptic battle by Christians against Islam, a religion they regularly branded as ‘satanic.’ All this befits a movement whose final aesthetic is violence. It also befits a movement that, in the end, would need the military and police forces to seize power in American society“.
Chris Hedges is a far left, anti-Christian, Liberal working for a newspaper that holds the same sentiments. His motivations are horrid but some of his descriptions are both accurate and deplorable.
Implicit in the zeal to evangelize is the erroneous assumption that conversion involves “making a decision for Christ“. This Arminian heresy has distorted the Christian ethic and created the impression that Christians are something akin to eccentric used car salesmen and must be avoided at all costs. All through the Biblical narrative God selected His servants. God chooses whom He chooses; we do not choose God, that is humanism! Jesus Himself said that no man would become a Christian unless the Father drew him. Evangelism should never involve planting but only gently harvesting the fruit that God has planted and nurtured.
When the present nation of Israel was created by the Balfour Agreement and sustained by the United Nations, the land occupied by Palestinian Arabs for centuries was overrun by illegal aliens and expropriated by a secular government that has established a nation taken from their ancestors by God as a result of an apostasy that has never been forsaken. This huge injustice supported by theologically challenged Christians is in direct opposition to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Who ordered the Diaspora which removed the mantle from those that had broken His covenant and placed it on those who accepted His Son as their Savior. Now, many of these Christians have broken this precious Covenant by supporting what God has rejected.
Consider the strife and turmoil the creation of this illegitimate nation has created. Prior to 1948, Jews and Arabs had been living peacefully in Palestine for centuries. When Jewish immigrants began to arrive in the area in overwhelming numbers Arab resistance was justly strident and has remained so. Terrorism was unheard of before this affront to God and the clandestine partisanship that has divided Jewish loyalty to their present domiciles was non existent. This was a crime against the established government of the Middle East and against the Jewish people as well. Injustice can be forceably maintained by coercion but it never brings lasting peace.
We now have Christians who worship a peaceful God engaged in overt military action against over 200 million Arabs who instead of annihilation should be awarded the Justice our Christian God represents. It is an anarchic, confusing, unjust situation that only Satan could create
What a tragedy that highly placed military personnel are spreading this pernicious heresy throughout the upper echelons of our government and that wealthy Christians have fallen victim to this same “kill’em all” doctrine and are busy aiding it and making money from it.
Much of this aberration can be traced to the blasphemy Dispensationalism has created. It is not only a paralyzing doctrine but has succeeded in neutering Christianity by channeling Christian zeal into supporting what God hates while failing to support what He loves.
If United States Evangelical leaders would begin to understand the injustice Israel represents and join with The Creator in bringing both Jew and Gentile under the jurisdiction of God’s Laws hope could be returned to the world.
“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”