I remember walking around the Baghdad square where 17 civilians were killed by Blackwater employees.  The Iraqi Security Forces who overlooked the square looked like they wanted to shoot me.  I'm not really sure I blame them.

 I remember the Blackwater helicopters that buzzed over the Green Zone, guys sitting, legs out with their assault rifles looking badass and never considering that they wouldn't be able to hit a target while airborne in the first place.   They flew like so many mosquitoes and I thought "man, if I lived here that would bug the sh** out of me."

On Foward Operating Bases there are three types of water:  there is white water which is potable, grey water which is shower water, and black water which is sewage.  It fits. 

 Aside from making a ruckus in Baghdad, and aside from their founder Erik Prince being accused of murdering Americans investigating the company's activities, it now looks like the CIA hired Blackwater to provide assassination squads, too.  Not that I should be surprised.  

 In a war where we outsourced everything else, why not outsource the killing, too?  All the regular players were there, CIA, Blackwater, and the puppet master himself, Dick Cheney who told the CIA Congress had no need to know about the secret assassination squads and so they didn't say anything. 

 I'd like to say something profound on this, about how outsourcing the way we fight is essentially outsourcing our foreign policy -- after all, the most noticable diplomat is the one with a gun -- but the Bush administration, the CIA, and Blackwater have all reached such a level of absurdity that anything normal should be considered as suspect.  This is crazy enough that it makes sense, and that's goddamned terrifying. 

A while back, the Huffington Post recommended that the US Gov't shut down either the DIA or CIA as a cost-cutting measure.  It was the CIA that bungled the WMD card in Iraq when other intelligence agencies were advising against it.  It was the CIA who had the secret prisons.  It was the CIA outsourcing asssassinations to Blackwater.  The DIA plays by murky rules as well, but it's founded on a military backing.  It runs off solid intel and it runs off discipline, and yes, even a legal obligation to tell Congress and the White House what it's up to.  

Shut down the CIA.  Transfer its sources and assets over to the DIA.  Shut down Blackwater.  If we need soldiers that bad impose a draft.  If not, then reconsider whether its a fight we should be in in the first place.