Death in Fallujah

A left-wing blog that calls itself Kos says cruelly stupid things about the Americans slain and dismembered in Iraq.

I feel nothing over the death of merceneries. They aren't in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.

... Don't believe for a second this is about democratic rule. These guys were mercenary thugs working for a proto-fascist US regime.

... The "mercenaries" by and large are Americans who never made much as US soldiers ....

So who are these mercenary monsters, these "failed" soldiers?

Jerry Zovko joined the Army in 1991 at age 19. He spoke five languages fluently — English, Croatian, Spanish, Russian and Arabic. He was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Tom Zovko said.

Teague, of Clarksville, Tenn., was a 12-year Army veteran who earned a Bronze Star for service in Afghanistan and also served in Panama and Grenada, his wife, Rhonda, said in a prepared statement. She called her husband a ”proud father, soldier and American.“

I know guys like that. Ex-special forces types, getting ahead in construction or some other contracting work. They work for money, they go where the money's good, and they give you good effort for your dollar.

Meanwhile, something I meant to post earlier. Mario Vargas Llosa, brilliant and human, explains Madrid (in the Guardian).