Special Forces offered $150,000 bonuses
According to reports, veteran Navy SEALS and Army Green Berets are being offered up to $150,000 in bonuses to remain in uniform for a few extra years. This story has made its way up the importance ladder because of the recent Blackwater Security problems.
Recently Blackwater Security, who the US pays to protect diplomats in Iraq, killed 17 Iraqis and have had their license suspended. After this story broke most people were surprised to see that our soldiers were not the only ones with boots on the ground in Iraq.
Blackwater security members get paid significantly more than US commandos. According to Doug Brooks, president of the International Peace Operations Association, “Of the estimated 25,000 security personnel working in Iraq, only about 2,000 are Americans and they earn between $350 to $500 a day.”
The word ‘Blackwater’ has since had a “Watergate” ring to it and what they do is now under the microscope. Are Blackwater Security members mercenaries? Is what they do unethical?
Is getting paid to protect someone unethical?
No it isn’t. They are simply heavily armed bodyguards. Just because they tend to fire their weapons daily does not make what they do unethical. This may be why we are viewing Blackwater different than typical security guards. Typical security guards rarely draw their weapon, while Blackwater commandos have to use their weapons almost daily.
Blackwater is not in Iraq to fight insurgents, they are there to protect certain individuals. There is nothing wrong with that.
The thing that irks me a bit about this is the fact that Special Forces, who carry out much more dangerous assignments than Blackwater, get paid so little to do so. If you knew exactly what these guys do you wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight! Everyday these heroes have to kiss their families goodbye knowing that it may very well be the last time that they see them. And they do it for me and you. These guys should be getting paid a million dollars a year. They display more patriotism and courage than will ever come out of most Americans.
If you ever watch “The Unit” you will begin to understand.
October 16th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
I wholeheartedly agree. Many of the Blackwater guards that we are paying top dollar for are actually ex-special forces that the government trained in the first place! It only makes sense to pay more to retain them in the military instead of having to buy them back from the private sector. They’re on our side regardless so why not treat them right in the first place? It’s very much parallel to what’s been happening for years with pilots and the aviation industry.
Sadly, the left-wing extremists like Harry Reid and the impeached ex-presidents wife would rather spend our hard earned tax money on stupid programs that give medical benefits to middle class families that choose not to purchase health care through their jobs. They make this choice with full knowledge of it’s implicatons so that they can live in McMansions, drive Lexus’s and purchase carbon credits from some corporation that plants saplings in their name…