North Carolina: Pro-military, Anti-mercenary

Many of the challenges we're facing here in North Carolina have been decades or longer in the making. Effective solutions will not come quickly, even when there is the political will for change. Environmental degradation over the last century will take decades to correct. Improving mental health care will require generous funding and commitment to rebuild the infrastructure and the confidence of caregivers. The toxic influence of free-market fundamentalism requires that we push back again and again and again.

But other challenges are not so deep-rooted. For example, the exponential growth of war-profiteering by the Blackwater mercenary army has been relatively recent.

High-profile politicians often claim that North Carolina is a military friendly state. Liddy Dole talks about it all the time, as do most of our Congressmen and state officials. Bev Perdue, in particular, has impressive pro-military credentials. So it's time to put all that talk to the test.

Every time a taxpayer dollar goes to fund armed Blackwater contractors, that dollar is diverted from funding our men and women in uniform.

Every time Blackwater takes delivery of a vehicle or a weapon or a piece of body armor, that delivery is not going to our men and women in uniform.

Every time a Blackwater mercenary gets paid five times what his counterpart on active duty gets paid, the sinking morale of our troops drops even farther.

Every time an armed Blackwater contractor operates above the law in a war zone, the lives of our troops are put at risk.

Every time the US government signs a contract with Blackwater to do a job that our men and women in uniform could do, we are telling those men and women they are not valuable or good enough to carry out the mission.

It is time to put a stop this insanity. It is time for North Carolina to walk all its talk about being a military-friendly state. It's time to draw the line - and fortunately, we can look west to the great state of Illinois for guidance.

Rep. Julie Hamos has introduced a bill into the Illinois legislature that establishes as public policy that private military contractors should not receive state funding or support in Illinois. The bill sets three important limitations on their function and use:

1. No state funds may be used to contract with or purchase services from private military contractors for training of law enforcement or security Guards.

2. No military weapons or explosives may be used by private military contractors in Illinois except on secured U.S. military bases or regulated facilities.

3. No personnel trained by private military contractors may be used to patrol, guard, control, contain or arrest any Illinois resident.

All three of these provision are good, but the second one is most important in shutting down Blackwater in North Carolina. I would upgrade the provision by deleting "regulated facilities" just to keep the lawyers at Womble Carlyle from finding a loophole.

Despite our best efforts in 2006, the Democratic Congress in Washington has failed us on many fronts. Our own representatives have been timid, allowing the Bush administration to ignore the rule of law again and again. Even today, it appears that the US House is prepared to capitulate and grant immunity to law-breaking phone companies. Simply put, we cannot rely on Congress to do the right thing with regard to mercenary armies. But we can make progress in Raleigh.

Every time you have a chance to talk to candidates for statewide office, for the General Assembly, or for Congress, ask them where they stand on legislation to end our government's dependence on mercenaries to fight our wars.

There are plenty of businesses we want in North Carolina. Blackwater is not one of them.