So WikiLeaks Is Evil For Releasing Documents... But DynCorp Gets A Pass For Pimping Young Boys To Afghan Cops?
from the wtf dept
One refrain we keep hearing against Wikileaks is that the cable releases aren't really "whistleblowing," because they're not really revealing anything. However, it seems like each day there's another big revelation of rather horrible things being done (and covered up) by the US government. The latest, pointed out by Boing Boing, involves a report from a cable that US-based private security contractor DynCorp, who was hired by the US to train Afghani police, was apparently supplying drugs and young boys for a sort of sex party.The details are horrifying. The Afghani interior minister apparently went to US officials to warn them that reporters were sniffing around this story, and urged them to try to kill the story. He specifically warned that this would look bad if the connection to DynCorp was made clear (he called them "foreign mentors"). Apparently, US diplomats told him not to worry, and the eventual story was in fact watered down greatly (until now, of course) calling the whole thing a "tribal dance," rather than a party where young boys wear "scanty women's clothes" and "dance seductively" before being "auctioned off to the highest bidder" for sex.
Oh, did we mention that DynCorp makes $2 billion per year -- 95% of which comes from American taxpayers.
And US government officials are declaring Wikileaks as an organization to shun and not to work with? What about DynCorp? Are their DNS providers pulling the plug? Are their banks shutting down their accounts? Are they being denounced by Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman? No? Why the hell not?
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Filed Under: afghanistan, wikileaks
Companies: dyncorp, wikileaks
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Only in one direction
Here is an example of WikiLeaks shining light on a real problem which we hope will bring end end to a very bad thing and make this kids more safe.
Are where are the concrete examples where where we are less safe now due to WikiLeaks? Are we just supposed to trust them, and ignore these example of where safety is increased?
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What a sorry post. When you reach this sort of level, you know you have failed.
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Maybe you have something to add to this article:
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Wiki_Administrators
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You can download opensource wikinotes and train all you want.
You just need to get the tags right.
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CBMHB
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"Not only was I not speeding, but there's a man over there raping a young boy that you should probably do something about."
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We're going OUT OF OUR WAY to not punish DynCorp and actually reward them instead. THATS the problem.
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You would be the first to support censorship of the Internet (COICA and others) in the name of "protecting the children". And you know if such a censorship would have Wikileaks among its first victims.
So much for all those "we're doing it for the children" and "if you've got nothing to hide, why be afraid of being monitored every single second of your miserable life?".
I can imagine a discussion between afghan and american officials, and DynCorp executives, saying "it's ok, we'll use state secret to cover this up, and if someone reveals that, we'll call him a dangerous irresponsible pro-terrorist anarchist endangering lives"
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Censorship would by to say that Assange has no right to an opinion. He has all the right to express his opinions freely and in public. When he accepts stolen documents, and then holds and distributes state secrets, well, that is another story.
Mr Assange is more than free to express his opinions on fast cars, little boy parties, and any other topic he so chooses. He just has to do it without using stolen material or in violating public security.
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*yawn*
i feel i have to do my share here.
Julian Assange is not a US citizen and therefore US Laws Does not apply .
Beginning to catch on ?, he could be held responsible for crimes committed IN the US yes, but not AGAINST the us.
So unless he was on US soil and committed a crime there is no case here.
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Unless Mr Assange wants to go and hide in one of the few countries that wouldn't extradite him to the US, or perhaps in the cave with his cohort Mr Bin Ladin, then he might be safe from prosecution. Otherwise, he will live a life similar to most outlaws, hiding out, with limited movements, and with no ability to live a real life.
As it is, don't be shocked if the Australian government uses his current incarceration as a way to deliver notice that his passport has been revoked.
Don't let the 4chan anons mislead you, Mr Assange is in deep crap, legal and otherwise.
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Is it really that hard to read the fucking news ? or wait, you only watch Fox News right ?
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> right to an opinion. He has all the right to
> express his opinions freely and in public.
> When he accepts stolen documents, and then
> holds and distributes state secrets, well,
> that is another story.
New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971)
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Any harm that comes from transparency will be less harm then no transparency at all.
How many true crimes people will hide to save their on asses?
Those are not, common citizens, those are people supposed to carry on the will of their people and they hold immense power, and abuse it frequently for their own selfish purposes with serious consequences to everyone and you want them to be able to hide?
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You really haven't been paying attention have you?
Let's spell it out so even an anonymous coward can understand. Our government has been using its national security blanket to cover up illegal activity by its contractors overseas. The administration classified the evidence to hide wrongdoing. Under normal circumstances they would be called out by our free media but that industry is too busy sucking off the administration to do their jobs so it's up to organizations like Wikileaks to fill the role of the Third Estate.
Worse than using their power to hide wrongdoing, they were caught using their power to hide wrongdoing. And worse than that, they were caught by an outsider like Wikileaks instead of by our own news companies who should have been on the case!
And now our administration is using its power to suppress the evidence of its wrongdoing instead of bringing the real criminals to justice.
Does that clear things up for you?
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Wikileaks is being dragged over hot coals pointing this filth out and you think that a report like this should just be ignored. Unbelievable.
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Because they're friends with the Right People, not enemies.
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News Cycle
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Aren't they always telling us...
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That said, a little righteous venting is satisfying. =P
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Wikileaks needs to be stopped so that the government can keep protecting these companies. If Wikileaks keeps educating the people, how the hell will the government be able to take advantage of them?
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Way to fail at reading.
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"Don't Touché me in my private places!"
CBMHB
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Well, DynCorp is...
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And yes, if our government spent half the energy from suppressing the leak on prosecuting the criminal acts revealed in the leak, the world would be a better place.
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The revolution will not be televised.
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This practice goes along with meetings between some the power brokers in Afghanistan. I am sure the US was well aware of it, and they no doubt would have wanted to keep under wraps any contractor who had been involved in this practice. Yet another problem with private contractors playing military games, they do not have the accountability the military does as private actors.
Yea, I am ok with anonymous screwing a bit with DynCorp. Just thinking about the children....
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"The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan" by Frontline
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The issue is not that this happens. It's that it happens on our dime. We can't control what they do, but we can sure as hell decide what we do.
Like what Senator McCain said about torture (shortly before losing his mind completely) "It's not about who they are. It's about who we are".
Also, reason #3,247 why getting into a land war in Asia is a bad idea.
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Personally, I find this just flat out nasty and where this is the custom, deserves to receive a low yield Cruise Missile. How do companies operate in this kind of environment? How do you get things done when you are required to operate in a "when in Rome" way of doing things?
I do not understand how an American company with American workers, former military members, can stand by and watch this type of behavior, much less promote it, god forbid participate in it.
I just don't understand the thinking of someone who would make this decision to go ahead and be involved with it. These are not war crimes, these are crimes against humanity, something which sorry to say, this company and its workers seem to have very little of.
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I just don't understand the thinking of someone who would make this decision to go ahead and be involved with it. These are not war crimes, these are crimes against humanity, something which sorry to say, this company and its workers seem to have very little of.
this is exactly the result of a lack of transparency and accountability. i'm willing to bet it's not the worst of what we'll see come from these leaks.
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Its the price of doing business.
(Not justifying it, just verbalizing the thought process.)
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Except there's this annoying law called the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, that expressly prohibits this. Even if it's "the cost of doing business" it is prohibited, and the company stands to lose a TON of money for it.
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What!?
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DynCorp should be brought to account for any activities in support of this crap. Thanks Wikileaks and the press for exposing such corruption and idiocy of our governmental policies! Let me just get out my credit card and make a donation to the cause.......
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but your viewpoints are quite narrow and only looks to punish a single corporate entity and not those who enabled and looked the other way which i feel is a mistake. the military elements who knew about it and the political powers behind those who knew of it also need to be included in this as its a systemic problem and punishing just dyncorp alone does nothing to get rid of the problem, it only serves to put on a show to keep the masses happy... some other corporation would just step up in their place and perpetuate the problem further.
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Your logic fails.
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what exactly does this have to do with afghan poppies being turned into heroin? i get the tenuous connection you are trying to make, but its one thing for "everyone to know heroin comes from afghanistan" and thus holding every single person in the world accountable when they have nothing to do with either its production or distribution and/or failing to do something to stop it when they have no such power to do so... its quite a different thing to have military operations and us policy makers aware of an illegal and immoral practice (immoral based on current societal standards)and turn a blind eye to it.
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I put little boys up against the fields of poppies, which harm millions of people around the world, including the children of addicts and addicts under 18. In many cases, the military (and private contractors) specifically ignore the poppy fields, or even help to make it safe enough for the harvests to take place. I could go on.
The point is that there are all sorts of criminal actions all over the world. None of them mitigates or somehow takes away the seriousness of the actions of Wikileaks. This entire TD post is intended to do so. It's not information, it's rhetoric at it's finest, nothing more, and nothing less.
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US laws end at the border.
Yes, the one who gave Wikileaks the documents likely broke the law, Wikileaks however did not.
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Anyone else notice that he appears to be running a bit of a cult of personality? This image: http://wikileaks.ch/img/ja-main.jpg seems to be more about selling him and his personal stand rather than the actual content.
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That includes handling of documents that the US deems unlawful without the proper clearance.
I'll even highlight the important bit to be extra super clear(god knows it seems like you need it).
**This!** "..that the US deems unlawful without the proper clearance." **This!**
Now if you still cant grasp this, i recommend you sue your teachers to get your tuition money back.
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Remember, this is a cultural practice that has gone on supposedly for centuries. The US can't just bust into one of these parties, save all the children and impose our cultural norms on the Afghans and expect them to accept it. This stuff, as shocking as it is to us, is, well....delicate.
Who knows what the real story is here? But the Frontline documentary covering this topic is informative.
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id like to see it labled "DERP!"
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CBMHB
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sure i get techdirt as the first link on just a simple search, click on the 'all 6 news articles' link and huffington post is first. and even with all that... so what? do you actually have a point or are you just trying to obfuscate the real issue?
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this is one of those interesting random facts people sometimes put up just because 'while we're on the subject, this was kinda interesting...' with no further motivation.
'course, Harbinger could be right too.
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id rather you were right than me this time.
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What to do? Well...
2. Email Dyncorp describing how vile and immoral their business ehtical behavior is.
3. Email Cerberus Capital Management since they are owners of Dyncorp and inform them how this will surely bring the value of their stocks down.
As a user of the internet, be passionate, show empathy and do something about this. We are not gonna be able to do anything about if we only read about it. Remember what JFK said, "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."
Sorry for going out like that, but something needs to be done for once.
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Re: What to do? Well...
Be kind of fun. The legal version of Anon DDoS harassment.
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Joe Lieberman supports child rape
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Re: Joe Lieberman supports child rape
Lieberman supports child rape
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What's next? Are they going to stop people from sacrificing albino kids to bring in the crops next season? We are trying to win hearts and minds here folks!
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Gold, pure gold
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Whoops... I'm embarrased
Well I am embarrased, but still contact Cerberus by email though.
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Holy crap!
I'll be waiting a long time for that, but I can always dream. Meanwhile, I'm spreading the word and you should to.
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Not so foreign....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Foley_congressional_page_incident
http://www.hereinr eality.com/callboy.html
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Nixon.
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If I as a private citizen, travel to Thailand to have sex with minors (boys or girls) the US govt. will arrest me when I get back. I guess companies that actually facilitate this in Afghanistan are exempt?
If an American bribes a foreigner, they are breaking a US Law, but I guess pimping out Afghan children is ok?
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Whoa. Slow your roll.
No. Thats actually not true. Thailand can arrest you. But the crime is out of the US's jurisdiction. That's why they don't arrest every US citizen who flies in from a vacation in Amsterdam or Jamaica smelling of weed...
As far as the second point, I am not sure where you got the impression that I support the "pimping out of children". All responsible parties should be held accountable, and I have stated that. I am simply looking at this from a critical, rather than emotional perspective.
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I hope you are being sarcastic or a troll because I can understand other people from other cultures doing things that abhor us, what can't accept is people from our own, that have full knowledge of how people view those kind of thing doing it for whatever the reason.
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George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 3
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That being said, people should be going to jail over this, and not Wikileaks people.
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The United States has risen to take legislative action against the growing evils of child sex tourism. In 1994, Congress established 18 U.S.C. § 2423(b), which is aimed towards prosecution of child sex tourists. Section 2423(b) criminalizes traveling abroad for the purpose of engaging in illegal sexual activity with a minor.
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Dynacorp
Our country was not founded on double-standards, we shouldn't condone double standards now (as in if anyone BUT the US government tried to get away with this behavior (not that we would), we'd be prosecuted to the full extent of the law). Being the government isn't a good enough reason for an exception. I AM the people and government representatives are to serve the interests and needs of the people (you and me), not their own bank accounts.
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First, 'Muslims' are not trying to kill us... radical branches of the Muslim faith are... or were, since we haven't really seen much success from their camps recently, have we? If you want to continue with the stereotyping and racism, I recommend the application of a brick to your head. Works wonders.
Second, wikileaks is NOT trying to weaken America. They are trying to facilitate transparency so that crimes like the one leaked here don't go unnoticed or unpunished. And that's a bad thing?
Third, if the release of these acts is fragmenting our military or government, then MAYBE OUR MILITARY AND GOVERNMENT SHOULD STOP DOING BAD THINGS! Are you seriously trying to pass the blame of these horrible actions onto the person who brought it to light? Really?
And let me go a bit deeper on that one... are you saying wikileaks is forcing the military to close down it's communications to make it harder for wikileaks to get at it? Ok... so why the hell do they need to hide what they're saying? WL has never leaked anything except the horrible actions that need the light of day. If the military is closing down inter-branch communications, then as I said before, maybe they should think about what they're trying to hide.
Now, if you're quite done trolling, please go back under your bridge, wrap yourself up in the flag and rock yourself to sleep whimpering about how they're coming to get you.
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dyn corp needs to be investigated further
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wow
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More propaganda
9/11 and Israel, here:
http://www.iuniverse.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-000190526
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The nature of a unidirectional tension... :)
The curious thing about the way things work for the hypocrits is that they will say do this and then they go do the opposite. This generates a unidirectional tension in the mass consciousness which is continually being increased in strain. (not unlike how electricity potentials between the earth and a cloud will build up before a lightning discharge.) The result will be either a controlled or an explosive correction to the skewed aspect of our group reality. The only side left with some rationality in thought is the one that doesn't side with either the victims or the hypocrits. (aka the public or the bankers/illuminati) It will be interesting to watch how things progress. Capitalisms true purpose is now being seen. Divide, conquer, control. I'm just hoping the correction isn't to far off.
Regards,
The Dude
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Take action
Find your elected official here and write to them:
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
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Therefore I would say we all must say no to these sort of activities which DynCorp is doing and strongly condemn them.
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Gangsta Govt
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Saddam
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Saddam
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Its an afgan tradition, nothing to do with the US..
there is simply NO WAY, that a US citizen, would be able to "assume the role of a pimp" in this situation..
This article has been writting by someone, (again), that does not HAVE A FREAKING clue about what is actually happening.. and who does not care to find out...
So there IS NOT WAY in the world, that the US would be "pimping" these kids...
It is part of afgan culture, again, it has nothing to do with the US, it has been happening for thousands of years there, well before the US even existed..
And mike you know how bad it is when you have to refer to other "crimes" in an attempt to mitigate something else that you support...
The US in afgan, got a 'PASS' for the simple fact, they did not break any laws.. Those 'dancers' have been doing that for thousands of years, they are volentary, well looked after, protected... it would not be possible for a non-afgan to have any control over them.
And US laws do not apply there, so if no law is broken, and the US can easily prove they were not the "pimps", (easy to prove as its not possible).
Then what can they be charged on Mike ??? NOT breaking a law ??
But trying to compare assange with US military, is a joke, ,and reflects your lack of knowledge of the real world..
Like your stupid claims that the US would be cheering if Assange was attacking China..
You are a fool if you think China and the US do not have a VERY VERY VERY close relationship..
Who the hell do you think PAY you guys in the US for the last 10 years or so ??
Not freaking yourselves, you cant even balance your books !!!..
So no each US citizen man, woman, or child, own China at least $30,000 each.. EACH....
China does not have to bomb the US to destroy it,, it simply just has to ask for its money back...... now..
America could not pay, so china would say ok, we'll seize your assets, or your country as well need some more space..
And dont try to attack us, because we'll also stop paying your military, and funding your continuous wars, against nothing..
Or china will just one day say, we are sick of lending your money, go screw yourself, you're not getting any more..
Result, America collapses.. which it will anyway,, its just a matter of time. if not allready..
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A whole $2 billion a year
I wonder how much the US pays for their wars in the middle east,, oh thats right I know that..
Yes, its over $10 BILLIONS PER MONTH, for how long,, we'll about 10 years, about 120 months, at OVER $10 billion a month !!!!!!!..
And what does this group cost, $2 billion a year..
A single good sized storm, in a US city would easily cause over $2 billion damage in one day..
So the US borrows trillions of dollars from china, so they can fund a war (at 10 billion a month), and give tax cuts to the mega rich..
I wonder how much fiscal stumulus, $10 billion dollars a month would have on the US economy, if it was spent on the US economy ??
But why worry about that, when all that is important, is TODAY, who cares that your kids will have to pay for it, and pay ALOT.. for a war they were not even born when it started..
And the US is failing recently, big time, its dollar is failing, its in recession, it has massive unemploymehnt, but you will still spend $10 billion A FREAKING MONTH, on a failed war..
the US is addicted to borrowing money, and being in war..
Trouble is they are not good at either..
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murder?
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dyncorps
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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0896872/
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