Democrats criticized the Bush administration Tuesday for giving immunity to Blackwater USA bodyguards, calling the move a failure to hold the security contractors responsible for the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians.
The State Department, whose investigators initially promised to shield the bodyguards' statements in the criminal inquiry of the Sept. 16 shootings, maintained that any lawbreakers "must be held to account" as a result of the inquiry that has since been taken over by the Justice Department and FBI.
Kansas City Star
However, the Bush administration further promised that anybody who is involved will be prosecuted at a press conference.
Naturally, there is an obligation for the US government to protect its employees while they perform jobs. Would it be appropriate for the government to sacrifice these guys on the altar of convenience? That would be criminal in and of itself.
Rather, there is a degree of prudence in giving a sort of limited immunity with promises to look into it and prosecute those guilty; it makes me sleep well at night though certainly I hope the great watchdog groups insure it is not merely swept under the rug.
But at the same time the only people who seem to have zero support from liberal watchdog groups are soldiers and those involved in the war. While the Left Wing assumes cop killing Mumia Abu Jamal to be a victim of circumstance, the opposite view is generally embraced by left for soldiers: beyond a doubt there are human rights violations occurring, and even when they do not have evidence of them they merely assume that in spite of intense media coverage it is still being concealed.
The left has disdain for soldiers often times and views them as moronic pawns in Bush's war (though when confronted directly they pay lip service barring a few). Michael Moore did a great job of trying to slander our soldiers in Fahrenheit 9/11.
I expect Blackwater contractors (who I am sure are now the products of many imagined conspiracies about Halliburton and Bush's inhumane torture policies, viewed on par with a secret society of murderers and bandits) to be viewed far worse than soldiers as they represent an elite mercenaries (in liberal talk, this is a baby killer, but not the good, partial birth abortion doctor kind).
We'll listen to the bleating lambs of liberalism (or jackasses if we should revert to calling them by their symbol) rail against the Bush administration for erring on the side of caution but at the end of the day we all know the right thing is being done.
God knows if the liberals suspect a miscarriage of justice then justice is certainly being served.
Linear Mode
