Not Few. Not Proud

Over at TPMMuckraker we’re following this new case of Blackwater contractors charged with murder — this time it’s in Afghanistan, not Iraq. And the papers coming out of the trial points to recruiting standards that leave quite a lot to be desired. Both defendants left the US military (one Marines, the other Army) without an honorable discharge. One had a long history of criminal behavior and violence, going AWOL, DWIs, resisting arrest and more; and the other got booted after going AWOL and testing positive for coke. In other words, both turn out to be what I would think of as caricatures of the private military contractor — out-of-control, violent and marginally socialized men who wash out of the US military but turn up again in US war zones as “contractors” hired by Blackwater.