Reply #69: I agree with you that companies like Halliburton [View All]

[QC]

prey on the poor. That's my point here. I also agree with you that the whole paramilitary thing is disturbing for all the reasons you have cited and something must be done about it.

As for whether he took a job that required killing, well, I would be interested in knowing how this was sold to him. Hiring on as a truck driver is a very different thing from hiring on as a mercenary. There's a lot more I would like to know here. Maybe an enterprising journalist will look into how companies like Halliburton hire their civilian workers for this kind of job, but I won't hold my breath.

I think it's a safe bet that, if given a choice between making a decent living for his family in Macon and driving trucks in a combat zone, he would most likely have chosen the former. I could be wrong--he might have had Oliver North fantasies for all these years--but having seen my own family in some desperate times when I was a kid, I know that my own father would have taken a dangerous job to provide for us. (As it was, he took some dirty, hard work at below minimum wage, since it was either that or lose our house.) So I'm inclined to give this man the benefit of the doubt until I know more.

And, as I said, I'm also inclined to blame Bush for this mess.