I grew up, as many of you know, in a military family. In my family - as in most military families - there is a deep loyalty to the United States: the well-being of our country comes concretely before our families and very lives.
It is appropriate that when our country of, by, and for the people authorizes the use of deadly force, it is only to those whose loyalty to our country comes before any other loyalties they have.
Except that, as you know, that's not now the case. Now we have people using deadly force in our names whose loyalty is instead to corporations, most notoriously Blackwater.
Blackwater's contract was just renewed by the State Department. The supplemental appropriation that's about to be brought up before the House includes ongoing funding for Blackwater's activities in Iraq. If we're going to fight this, we need to fight it now.
It is not just that too many of Blackwater's employees in Iraq conduct themselves in ways that are counterproductive and deeply immoral. It is not just that there is no accountability for the company or its employees either in Iraq or here. And it is not just that the Iraqis have clearly and unambiguously called for Blackwater to leave.
Blackwater is a threat to the core underpinnings of our democracy. Who is this private army loyal to? Because they aren't ours. They don't wear our flags on their clothing -- they wear the symbol of Blackwater.
In October 2007, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that the work of these contractors in Iraq was `at cross-purposes to our larger mission in Iraq', and that `right now those missions are in conflict ...'.
If ever there was a core government function that should not be contracted out, it is the right to use deadly force in our names.
There's a bill in the House (that was identified in the Responsible Plan) which would phase out the use of military security contractors. H.R. 4102, the Stop Outsourcing Security Act, currently has 27 sponsors. The Senate equivalent, S. 2398, currently has 2 sponsors. I've listed them below. If your representative or senators aren't on these lists, it's probably time you asked them to be.
Current House sponsors: Rep Schakowsky, Jan (Sponsor)
Rep Allen, Thomas H. [ME-1]
Rep Baldwin, Tammy [WI-2]
Rep Blumenauer, Earl [OR-3]
Rep Brady, Robert A. [PA-1]
Rep Cohen, Steve [TN-9]
Rep Ellison, Keith [MN-5]
Rep Filner, Bob [CA-51]
Rep Frank, Barney [MA-4]
Rep Gonzalez, Charles A. [TX-20]
Rep Grijalva, Raul M. [AZ-7]
Rep Hinchey, Maurice D. [NY-22]
Rep Hirono, Mazie K. [HI-2]
Rep Holt, Rush D. [NJ-12]
Rep Kucinich, Dennis J. [OH-10]
Rep Lofgren, Zoe [CA-16]
Rep McDermott, Jim [WA-7]
Rep McGovern, James P. [MA-3]
Rep Miller, George [CA-7]
Rep Oberstar, James L. [MN-8]
Rep Pastor, Ed [AZ-4]
Rep Payne, Donald M. [NJ-10]
Rep Rahall, Nick J., II [WV-3]
Rep Rangel, Charles B. [NY-15]
Rep Stark, Fortney Pete [CA-13]
Rep Woolsey, Lynn C. [CA-6]
Rep Wu, David [OR-1]
Current Senate sponsors: Bernie Sanders (Sponsor)
Hillary Rodham Clinton
There are many, many battles we have ahead of us to get our country back on track. We recently chalked up a win on retroactive immunity and FISA. Let's win another.
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