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Comment by roenxi | Hacker News Reader

> ...private military company contracted by the US government...

Damn the private sector and their evil ... of wait the government was stumping up the cash. Was the government perhaps acting in its private capacity when hiring mercenaries to "support democracy" in oil rich nations?

This is not even particularly a private-public thing (look to the East India company for what a private company is capable of, although the situation was complicated). The invasion of Iraq wasn't a private enterprise. There were private interests involved, but I think most people would agree that is curruption.

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The US Government didn't ask Blackwater to kill 17 civilians in Iraq, they decided to do so themselves.

Obviously foreign invasions were not purely private enterprises. But American history is full of private interests pushing for war, the American Revolution itself was caused in large parts by the American private sector being much more enthusiastic to ethnically cleanse the land from natives and steal their land than the crown.

Private interests lobbying the US Government isn't really corruption, it is the way things are sadly intended to work.

My point is that the reason these atrocities are made by the government and not private companies is only that the government prevents the private sector from committing them. So giving power to the private sector instead of the government in general is not a good course of action despite these events because there is no reason to believe it is any less enthusiastic to do atrocious things.

Sorry, I'm not quite following the argument here. We're in a comment thread about it being illegal to reveal the amount of corruption in the US military, how they are not being particularly discriminating in who they are droning over in the Middle East.

You're putting up evidence that they are also hiring vetted thugs and sending them over to massacre people - also indiscriminately. Again, it is probably illegal at some level to report on how many massacres actually happen so presumably this case is more common than people think.

And the take away here is that the government is protecting us from private sector malfeasance? The private sector would never get funding for this sort of insanity! The only reason money is going to this is because paying taxes is mandatory. A tiny minority of people support this bloodshed. They just happen to have plum positions in DC. And even then, only because it isn't their money being used to vaporise brown people.

> and sending them over to massacre people - also indiscriminately.

That doesn’t follow, if the private sector decides to do something of it’s own volition then that’s on the private sector.

You might just as well say that the drone strikes are the fault of the individual operators. If a private operator does something in their capacity as a government contractor, then that's the government's responsibility.

If a fedex employee runs someone over while drunk, that employee is responsible. The company might also be responsible if they know the employee was drinking on the job.

It’s the same deal here, the company is 100% at fault, the government might also share some responsibility or not depending on the specifics. As to drone operators, “I was only following orders” isn’t a free pass though I was given bad information might be, the government can also be responsible at the same time.

Which isn’t to say these drone operators are going to end up at The Hague, but they and their superiors should at least be invested.

It's probably naive to think parts of the government and government contractors aren't deeply connected.

But somebody's paying them to do it. They weren't hired by McDonald's in this case, they were hired by the US government.

> On December 22, 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump granted full presidential pardons to Slatten, Slough, Liberty, and Heard.

Did Trump pardon them in his capacity has a private sector businessman?

It doesn't look like these are rogue agents. It looks a lot like the government (and, specifically, the military) is supporting their actions at the highest levels.

They where also tried and convicted by the US government, Trump pardoning them was a political stunt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_granted_executi...

They were sent to Iraq by the US military, presumably protected from Iraqi justice by the presence of the US military, and then they were pardoned for their horrific crimes by the head of the US military.

The 'oh they're private contractors, nothing to do with the US military here!' line doesn't really fit.

I remember seeing an interview or a report about the founder of Blackwater being upset about the backlash, because he specifically said that the US government sends them in to do jobs they don't want to do themselves.

To not put any blame on the US government for giving these companies the reach that they have is to turn a blind eye to the source of the problem. Not to mention that these mercenary companies are made up to a huge degree by ex military.

When you hire a Hitman to do your dirty work, sure, the Hitman is responsible, but the guy who hired him at least shares some blame.

> But American history is full of private interests pushing for war

It is, but this isn’t a US trait. Look at the UK and it’s record. The British East India company were truely outrageous and set the standard for centuries of brutality and immense profit. Pretty much everything else is small fry in comparison.

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