Details Murky

Dear Mr. President,

How many times do you have to be hit over the head with the obvious? The Afghans just don’t like us. Two days after joint operations resume, another green-on-blue attack kills 2 Americans and 3 Afghans. It was either a “misunderstanding” or an “insider attack,” details murky. A small American unit was collecting biometric data from locals in the Saidabad district (shades of Clockwork Orange!) when a mortar round landed in their midst and the Americans opened fire on an ANA checkpoint on the hill above them killing 3 Afghan soldiers and wounding 3 more; one man escaped unharmed. But what caught my eye was this: one of the 2 Americans killed was a civilian contractor. It got me wondering how many civilian contractors aka mercenaries, are in Afghanistan and why are they mixed in with an Army unit? And where do they show up on the budget? Or do they show up? Maybe like Bush, they disappear off the books, buried in some footnote in small print on page 2,136. Then it occurred to me that the security guys that got killed in Benghazi were ex-Navy SEALS aka mercenaries. And this morning when I read the latest article on the Benghazi raid—a well-planned, well-coordinated attack by well-trained militantinsurgentextremisjihadist whatevers—and the Libyan guards were from a British contractor called Blue Mountain. The Libyans were sort of like the TSA: guarding the gates, unarmed, operating the metal detectors, checking IDs, maybe confiscating toothpaste (details murky). But the militantextremistinsurgents were right on target, the first mortar missed but every one after that was a direct hit, a clear sign they had a spotter somewhere because the compound had high walls so they couldn’t see the target from outside. It seems the Libyans don’t like us any better than the Afghans or the Iraqis (who kicked us out soon as they could). Mr. President, foreign policy by the gun just ain’t working and neither is your outsourcing and privatizing the military with all these contractormercenaries. I object to 57% of my tax dollars being used to kill and terrorize people who pose no imminent threat to anyone in the U.S.A.  I object to your dumb wars and I object to government welfare for rich corporations and billionaires. I want my tax dollars used for schools, health care, roads and bridges, not bombs, bullets, drones, missiles, mercenaries and merchants of death. Maybe if we stop killing them, they’ll stop killing us. Think about it. What have you got to lose?