A USEFUL ROLE FOR BLACKWATER

If you have been in here before, you know I was never happy with Blackwater's role in the Bush administration. But I have never gone so far as the hard lefties and said that the existence of Blackwater is some kind of Clear and Present Danger to our society. Private "use of force" organizations have always had a role to play in civil society (Jack Bauer's current plight notwithstanding).

Now we have the Somali pirates. These Jolly fellows hold folks hostages and commit piracy on the high seas. Let's imagine a couple of things:

First, that we staff a tanker with blackwater guys and make it a rank target for our boys. You think a few casualties and a former seal placing shape charges under their little dinghy might deter future adventures? I do.

Second, Blackwater has an intelligence capability. Imagine, if Blackwater guys know where these pirates' Mommas live and children play. Imagine they know where they park their land rovers whilst they're out at sea. Just imagine the dialog: "I will let your captain go for $2.2M american. It must be within four hours!" "Well, Bunky that's interesting. Your four year old daughter is at the Mogadishu Community Center right now. She's got the cutest little blue slip-ons. They're a nice contrast to the red laser dot on the back of her head. Suit yourself. You want terrorism? We'll give you terrorism. Oh, yeah, that blue corolla you gave your Mom? Might want to tell her to crawl underneath it and take a look before she cranks it up. You know the undercarriage on those things is so easy to get at..." Now why don't you just take the nice captain back to his ship and get in your little boat and go fishing or something. Nobody has to die today but that's kind of up to you."

"Oh, and one other thing: I've got this swell sat-phone here. If I dial a certain number, it kind of gets the little glob of C-4 stuck on the bottom of cute little dinghy excited. You might want to be real gentle with our Captain because if he's hopeless, well be dialing for dollars. Of course, if you send a diver out to inspect the bottom of your cute little dinghy, don't expect him back. Those spearguns and our former Navy SEALS can ruin a guy's whole day."

A non-state role for Blackwater and the creeps get what they deserve. Everybody wins, Give or take a pirate.