Editor,
I am appalled at the complete lack of coverage of what the company Blackwater USA actually does. There have been two articles and one interview in this newspaper related to Blackwater, but no clear explanation of what it does.
In this newspaper, it has been referred to as a private security firm, but should be more accurately described as privatization of the military or, to put it simply, a mercenary group.
Blackwater is a group of highly paid mercenary companies working for the U.S. government in Iraq. Besides the enormous profit gained from this, there is also the element of secrecy. There are close to 200,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. There are more private contractors. There are hundreds of thousands of troops in Iraq, but half of them are not being counted because they are not technically U.S. soldiers. They are mercenaries.
This is the truth the Bush administration does not want you to know. This administration is not only stealing billions of dollars from our country, it is covering up the extent of the war by privatizing it. The administration is covering it up because it knows that if people really knew what was going on in Iraq, they would be horrified and protest much more violently than they do now.
They are correcting the mistake they made in Vietnam of letting people see what was happening. This war is a secret because the American people would not accept it for what it really is.
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The only way to fight injustice is to know it exists. To the students - educate yourselves. Know what is going on in the country and in the world. Do not except one source's view; get your own information. Do not accept the mainstream press coverage. The only way to fight unjust power is with information.
Cassandra Brown
UNM student
