It is our hope that the United States Government will not consider the loss of the lives of private contractors any different than they would that of any United States Military personnel. Such an atrocity of war should not go unpunished. It is our hope that President George W. Bush will send a clear and intense message to the responsible parties that no act of terrorism, murder, assassination, or hostile action against the American people will be tolerated and that their actions will be met with deliberate, precise, and intense retribution.
Let us not forget Mogadishu and the Clinton adminstration's decision to withdraw all United States Military forces after a similar incident. Somalia to this day still remains politically unstable and overrun with warring militias.
Below is a photo taken by an Associated Press photographer of the bodies of two of the four contractors killed. They were hung from a bridge. It is graphic but again it is a necessary reminder of the violence that all American soldiers and contractors face in Iraq on a daily basis.
On 4/21/05, Iraqi insurgents shot down a civilian-contracted helicopter carrying seven Blackwater USA contractors, along wth a Bulgarian and Fijian aircrew. The Blackwater personnel were contracted by the U.S. State Department to provide security services for the Iraqi government. The flight was from Tikrit to Baghdad when it was shot down approximately 20 miles north of Baghdad by Iraqi insurgents. The link below shows the footage of the aftermath shown on Al-Jazeera and shows the bodies of two Blackwater contractors and the shooting death of a Bulgarian pilot who survived the crash, only to be shot 17 times in cold blood.
We pray and hope for a sudden and swift act of justice by the United States Military and Coalition Forces.
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