I read a very interesting quote today made by a Republican congressman during the Blackwater USA hearings. I think it highlights a little-mentioned facet of this whole story:
But Rep. John J. Duncan Jr. (R-Tenn.), voicing rare GOP criticism of Blackwater at the hearing, observed that Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, earns about $180,000 a year, less than half the salary of a Blackwater official in charge of a 34-member security team.
The war in Iraq has produced some of the most “lavish” and “excessive” contracts in U.S. history, Duncan said. “Fiscal conservatives should feel no obligation to defend this kind of contracting. . . . In fact, fiscal conservatives should be the ones most horrified by this.” – Excerpted from The Washington Post
The above two paragraphs were the last two in The Post’s story.
