Idiots

I watched Jamie McIntyre on CNN reporting on a bombing in Iraq. How anyone can do this with a straight face, I don't know, but he matter of factly added that a brigadier general named Dorko was wounded and that he was being guarded by private security forces which "weren't Blackwater."

When he did the usual back and forth with Lou Dobbs, the name of the security firm came out...Erinys. Then came the moment I wait for, the reason I sit through all the constant drivel about illegal immigration which drips like Chinese water torture every evening between six and seven on CNN, Lou Dobbs saying "What idiots!

If Jamie had done a Google search on Erinys, he'd have found out that the polonium trail of dead Russian Litvenko lead to the Erinys Office in London, and that a good deal of the company cut their millitary teeth as part of apartheid era South African forces.

That's not what Lou Dobbs meant by "idiots". He meant something like "Why does the military need to be guarded by an expensive security firm when we've got our own on the government dole?"

Jamie McIntyre picked up on this and said something about this proving how stressed our regular forces are.

Reporters really ought to be steeping themselves in the morass of mercenary culture as it seems these are the pod people posing as our military. But then, this would mean acknowledging an alien invasion far insidious than Lou Dobbs' Mexican illegals, and far harder to deal with. I mean, these mercenaries come with guns. Big guns. And helicopters.

Fortunately, except for the few who make it to danger zones like New Orleans, companies like Erinys and Blackwater operate far far away, where we can't see them. And with this thought, let me leave you with the words of a Neil Innes song:

"How sweet to be an idiot,
And dip my brain in joy,
Children laughing at my back,
With no fear of attack,
As much retaliation as a toy.
How sweet to be an idiot. How sweet."