You break it you buy it.

"Officially, the company boasted of its forces "join[ing] the hurricane relief effort." But its men on the ground told a different story." (Scahill, 321)

What is happening here is that the Blackwater troops landed on home soil claiming to help out with Hurricane Katrina. The reality is that upon arrival, they did little to help and treated the wasteland of New Orleans like a playground. Their presence actually had a negative effect on New Orleans. Does anyone else see a problem here?

This really articulates a major problem with this type of task force; if something like this does happen and people know about it, how can you cover it up or defend yourself? The amount of trust given to this task force in order for them to have a massive budget, operate independently and have little restriction on what they do is colossal, and the fact that they abuse it is a kick in the face to everyone involved. You've got a bunch of children loose in a candy store, except this time there are ramifications extending past "you break it you buy it".

There are serious moral issues with this as well, which Scahill draws on to justify his thoughts on mercenary armies. He is drawing on peoples knowledge of how awful it is to kick someone when they are down, and on people's patriotism to create negative opinions on this event. Being Canadian I can't identify with this particular example, but worldwide people know that if your city is hurting, the last thing you will stand for is someone (who should be on your side!) furthering the damage. By both demeaning the task force and drawing on people's personal emotions Scahill forcefully imposes his opinion on the reader, which makes me wonder whether or not I should believe all that I am reading...