So What if We Hire A Few Contract Killers?

The New York Times recently published a story about the C.I.A. hiring Blackwater, the private security firm, to kill top Al Qaeda operatives. For some reason, this notion has a few people with their undergarmants all twisted up in knots. How could we pay to have people killed? It sounds so mafia. So hip hop. Can you believe we would hire contract killers in order to shed responsibility for whatever their actions might be? What about International law? What about taking the high road? In this case, I'm okay with the low road.



So, we already pay people to kill our enemies, but we call them the military. But that's only in warfare, right? We also pay people to kill covertly, but we call them the Central Intelligence Agency. What about accountability for the actions of these contract killers? The way I see it, these contractors are still accountable. If bad things go down, there is a variety of consequences from imprisonment on foriegn soil, to losing their jobs or even losing their lives.

I understand the desire to take the moral high ground because we're "America". But when your enemy makes their own rules, it's really difficult to continue to follow yours. Especially when the lives of our sons, daughters, brothers and sisters are at stake. My only regret is that they didn't actually whack any of these terrorists Tony Soprano style.