Faith-Based Initiatives Gone Wild

face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Blackwater USA was
co-founded by former Navy Seal Erik Prince, a "billionaire right-wing
fundamentalist Christian from a powerful Michigan Republican family."

face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">By the end of 2004
Blackwater's president, Gary Jackson, was bragging to the press of
"staggering" 600 percent growth. "This is a billion-dollar industry,"
Jackson said in October 2004. "And Blackwater has only scratched the
surface of it."

face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">According to Scahill,
there are tens of thousands of private military contractors - a kind
euphemism for mercenaries - operating today in Iraq. They are paid with
American tax revenues to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars,
while operating with virtually no oversight and free from the
strictures of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Dozens of acts of
brutality and murder reportedly committed by these contractors have
been alleged, but almost no contractor has been punished, sanctioned or
even investigated for these acts.

face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">As I said in my
inaugural address, compassion is the work of a nation, not just a
government. It is more than the calling of politicians; it is the
calling of citizens. It is citizens who turn mean streets into good
neighborhoods. It is citizens who turn cold cities into real
communities.



It is one of the great goals of my administration to invigorate the
spirit of involvement and citizenship. We will encourage faith-based
and community programs without changing their mission. We will help all
in their work to change hearts while keeping a commitment to pluralism.

The first paragraph is from href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Blackwater_USA">Sourcewatch;
second from The
Nation; third from href="http://www.mousemusings.com/weblogs/2007/05/supporting-what-troops.html">mousemusings;
fourth and fifth, from href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/20010129-5.html">President
Bush.  Erik Prince is just another " href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Koernke">Mark from
Michigan," only operating under political cover.