What will become of the Blackwater Army when Dems take control of the White House?

[Stinky The Clown]

Obviously, given Waxman's hearings, there have been a number of threads about Blackwater. I can't find one asking this question:

When (if) the Democrats take control of the White House on January 20th, 2009, what will become of Blackwater? Obviously, his history shows that Erik Prince was not much until the Iraq War fattened him up quite nicely. The Feds are his only substantial customer. Without those fat federal contracts, he'd go back to being a right wing nutter, a religious nutter, and a dangerous thug ....... but no longer the world's richest and most powerful general.

Will the Dems support him?

[Richard Steele]

1. The same thing that happened when Dems took control of Congress. nm

[YOY]

5. Yup

Zilch change. Especially considering the "inevitable" outcome of the primaries.

Wouldn't want to upset the "moderates" by persecuting the mercenary "patriots" or so it seems.

[BrklynLib at work]

2. They will march thru the gates of hell back to where they came from..

[EV_Ares]

3. Hard to say if you go on what the dems have been doing so far. They

don't seem to be doing anything much different than the republicans.

Americans are against the war but now you have the dems in control of congress and they keep going along with funding the war which in turn funds Blackwater.

[Virginia Dare]

4. Good question, what we've been TOLD for many years..

is that Blackwater and Halliburton are the ONLY companies who can effectively do the work that they do. I find this rather hard to believe, given the potential money involved.

I suspect tha if and hopefully when the Dems are back in power, other companies, in theory not so cozy with the repubs, will magically appear that will be able to bid on this kind of work, either that, or the Dems will federalize it, which is probably the best answer.

[EV_Ares]

7. I also would hope that "if" & "when" the dems get control of the WH and

congress, they would really tear into the contracts given Halliburton and Blackwater and if anything substantive was found, would then hit them hard and heavy with fines. I would not care if those two companies were driven into bankruptcy. Also, would really be interested to see how Bush & Cheney's companies were given the contracts and how those are the only two companies able to do Bush & Cheney's work on the backs of the taxpayer.

[AtomicKitten]

6. Depends which Democrat is sworn in.

Even China has invested in Blackwater. I am afraid some might find something warm and fuzzy about this out-of-control corporation and keep them around to, um, enforce the now expanded presidential powers.

:scared:

[aikoaiko]

8. Give em a raise and hire more given whats happened since the election.

[Canuckistanian]

9. At the present rate, nothing

Remember, the Iraq war was primarily a giant make-work project for the rich.

To eliminate the jobs that are primarily done by contractors would take a herculean effort. Besides, those contracts will take billions to cancel out. There are probably built-in "poison pills" in case of just such an attempt.

Contractors are there to stay. About the only thing that can be done is to *try* to impose some rules of engagement and financial responsibility.

[mumon]

10. One word: Pirates.

Regardless of when it happens, at some point, Blackwater will become irrelevant, burdensome, and must be pushed under the bus whether it's done by Repubs or democrats. Then, like Japan's ronin morphing into the yakuza or the privateers morphing into pirates, or the Sicilian protection groups & vigilantes morphing into the mafia, you'll have a whole new band of splintered organized crime organizations springing from the carcass of Blackwater.

Count on it. You read it here first.

[reality based]

17. The last time the US faced significant problems with privatized military forces was when

Aaron Burr murkily schemed to seize Mexico and the (then) western US with a private army in the early 1800s. That led to a series of private filibustering expeditions into Texas (where else?) and northern Mexico by frontier riff-raff and and disaffected Mexican revolutionaries. The early Republic of Texas governments were continually plagued by their adventurism. Texas President Sam Houston once proclaimed that they should "plant corn" rather than pursue their many crackpot schemes which threatened to involve a perpetual war with Mexico and discourage recognition of the legitimacy of the Texas Republic. I regard Bush/Cheney as their spiritual heirs.

[bananas]

29. Good point. nt

[Wiregrass Willie]

11. Scattered to the four winds -- I hope.

Then maybe Prince can sell Amway for a living instead of hustling taxpayers.

Prince is the brother of Betsy DeVos, a former chairman of the Republican Party of Michigan and wife of former Alticor (Amway) president and Gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos. (DeVos is son of Amway founder).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Prince

[TechBear_Seattle]

12. Same contract, different war

The Dems in Congress have shown reluctance in reining in the Junta's pet mercs. Why should this change just because the Administration changes?

[Virginia Dare]

19. If they clean out the Pentagon civilian brass from top to bottom..

which I hope they will, it could happen. There's a lot of corruption, and most if not all of the profits are going to Republicans. Realistically, I doubt the Democrats are going to sit by and let that continue on. Perhaps, if you want to be cynical, you can think that the corruption will just shift from one party to the next, but I doubt Blackwater will be privy to it much longer.

[TechBear_Seattle]

22. I hope it happens too, but I'm not holding my breath n/t

[Stinky The Clown]

28. It will happen .......

As said in the post just above (Virginia Dare) the worst case is that the corruption shifts from one party to the other. I am more hopeful. I think the ideologues at the Pentagon will be ousted/replaced. There is a virtual 100% certainty that the appointees will all be gone. The deeper issue is the military ideologues.

I suspect Blackwater will no longer have free access to the Public Teat.

[ecstatic]

13. This is why the unsecured voting machines bother me

Certain rogue corporations have every incentive in the world to cough up the $$$$ to keep a Dem from taking it all.

[roody]

14. Nothing.

[raccoon]

15. "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." In other words, nothing. nt

[T Wolf]

16. If there were a god, they would be left there without US troops as backup.

Of course, the executives of the company should also be deployed to the war zone.

But, realism says that not a damn thing will change.

[supernova]

18. Blackwater will still need a conflict to profit from

even if the Dems regain congtrol of the WH and end the war in Iraq.

If not in Iraq, BW will go wherever they can cause trouble, then provide the "solution." Sudan, Darfur, perhaps now Burma.

You can bank on it. Organizations like that simply don't just disband.

[Virginia Dare]

20. They will continue on to be sure..

but I doubt the gravy train they're on now will last forever, especially once the repubs are (hopefully) summarily dispatched in 2008.

[terisan]

21. They will be working for and with Carlyle, other billionaires, dictators, evil regimes.

[Virginia Dare]

26. This is the correct answer IMO...n/t

[Stinky The Clown]

23. For those who think they'll continue on ..... status quo ........

..... do you really think the Democrats will leave them alone and continue to pay their fees? <---- Not a rhetorical question.

Really? <---- Not a rhetorical question.

I find that hard to believe.

I can believe the Democrats will leave them unpunished, not by ideological choice, but by pragmatic choice. But failing to punish them is quite different from 'continue to pay them'.

What I can't believe is that the Democrats will continue to fund Blackwater. Right now, Blackwater funds go mostly through State. There's little (palatable) that Congress can do about that. But when State is again controlled by grownups, I suspect that will change. We all know that State has two factions - the career diplomats and the ideologues put in place by The Cabal. (And Blackwater is yet another reason why both Powell and the Rice woman need to brought up on charges of crimes against humanity ... but that's another story.)

[Virginia Dare]

25. Congress also appropriates the money for the State Department..

so they could easily axe them from the budget, and I'm quite sure they will at the first opportunity.

[Beelzebud]

24. Their contract will be renewed?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

27. they could be used to feed the poor in Africa

put them to good humanitarian use in say the Sudan.

Except you would have to watch them carefully in case they shot someone.

[spanone]

30. new no bid contracts...business as usual...