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October 27, 2004
Equal Pay for All Mercenaries! Justice Now!
Under the Same Sun reader Ripley brings up another instance of the examplary record of the occupation in helping solve the unemployment problems of the unsavory remainders of ex-dictatorships of the world. This bunch is Pinochet's Chile:
The US is hiring mercenaries in Chile to replace its soldiers on security duty in Iraq. A Pentagon contractor has begun recruiting former commandos, other soldiers and seamen, paying them up to $4,000 (£2,193) a month to guard oil wells against attack by insurgents. Last month Blackwater USA flew a first group of about 60 former commandos, many of who had trained under the military government of Augusto Pinochet, from Santiago to a 2,400-acre (970-hectare) training camp in North Carolina.From there they will be taken to Iraq, where they are expected to stay between six months and a year, the president of Blackwater USA, Gary Jackson, told the Guardian by telephone.
"We scour the ends of the earth to find professionals - the Chilean commandos are very, very professional and they fit within the Blackwater system," he said.
In case you're wondering where you remember the name Blackwater, the mercenary firm doing the hiring -- their employees are implicated in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal.
Now, here's my question. Where's the justice in this? Why are members of the unit responsible for gunning down school children in Soweto are being offered salaries as little as $1,000 and would-be mercenaries from El Salvador being offered $1,700 -- while commando's who had trained under Pinochet are being offered as much as $4,000? Since Bremer signed a bunch of orders just before his performace art piece called "transfer of sovereignty," isn't it fair for progressives to ask why no equal pay for equal work provisions were included in these orders? After all, if the man can ban the honking of horns and lift controls on capital flight, why couldn't he ensure South African mercenaries --who have a track records as fine as Pinochet's goons-- received a fair piece of the action?
Posted by zeynep at October 27, 2004 03:12 PM
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Comments
My guess would be--and it is only a wild guess--that the thugs from Chile were trained at The School Of The Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia and the ones from Soweto and El Salvador were not. But if that's not it, then I give up. (You know...The School Of The Americas is considered the Harvard of Thugs & Goons, is it not?)
Sincerely,
Old & In The Way
Posted by: Phil Cicchi at October 27, 2004 07:21 PM
Thanks for the mention. I do love your site.
but now I have my first spam and a virus :(
I'll keep coming back, though
Posted by: ripley at October 28, 2004 03:01 AM
Hi Ripley -- thanks much for the link. Do you want me to delete your email from your earlier comments and the post? Sorry about the spam and the virus.
Posted by: zeynep at October 28, 2004 10:47 AM
The recruiting of soldiers
from Chile and the paying to
them money that should go
to American troops.
Outsourcing.
I have been jumping up-and-down
and screaming that
this process takes our money
way very far away to
Chile when it needs to stay
HERE.
In the U.S.A.'s economy.
What did the American say
when he saw all of his own
toes covered in blood ???
May I please have more
bullets to shoot myself in
the feet some more .....
Posted by: Timmer at October 28, 2004 02:45 PM
Check this out.
Bob
Posted by: Bob at October 28, 2004 06:24 PM
oh thanks for offering. i was just whining (too little sleep), I think it's alll under control now.
best regards
Posted by: ripley at October 28, 2004 08:39 PM