One thing that puzzles me about the whole Daily Kos matter (see the original post, which has been rightly reviled, here and the non-apology apology here) — what’s wrong with people who provide security services for money? Security guards, both ill-paid and well-paid do it. Soldiers and police officers do it, too; I’m sure that most of them also do it in part, or even mostly, to serve their country and to help people, but many private security providers might have similar justifications. More broadly, most people in most socially valuable occupations do what they do for money. Why isn’t security service, or even military service the same?
If a security guard at a bank was brutally killed by a bunch of domestic political terrorists, we’d feel pretty bad about it, just as we’d feel bad if a policeman was killed. Seems pretty similar for foreign security guards, which is what these people more or less appeared to be.
Now there might be some differences in some situations. For instance, if some government that’s fighting an evil war (not just a perhaps unnecessary one, or one that isn’t worth American blood and treasure, but an evil one), one might fault foreign mercenaries fighting for that government more than one might fault domestic soldiers. The soldiers may be draftees as well as volunteers; they also seem more likely to be fighting out of duty, patriotism, or loyalty — the mercenaries seem less likely to be motivated by such reasons.
But here these people were fellow Americans, who seem to be defending good guys against bad guys. They were on our side, and on the right side. Even if you think our soldiers shouldn’t be fighting in Iraq, why should it justify contempt for our civilians who are earning a living protecting people in Iraq from terrorists and criminals?
Mark Kleiman, by the way, has an interesting post on this.
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