Interesting story in Sunday’s New York Times on the Blackwater folks setting up a mercenary force in the United Arab Emirates. No wonder we are despised around the world. Here’s the guts of the matter:
The force is intended to conduct special operations missions inside and outside the country, defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers from terrorist attacks and put down internal revolts, the documents show. Such troops could be deployed if the Emirates faced unrest in their crowded labor camps or were challenged by pro-democracy protests like those sweeping the Arab world this year.
Calling autocrats around the world (those historically friendly to the U.S. – i.e., Egypt’s Mubarak – and those less so – i.e., Libya’s Gaddafi): your jig…as well as gig…is up. The Internet is your noose. You could keep your people down for decades when they didn’t know any better. But now, hard-wired into the rest of the world, they know better. Further back in Sunday’s Times, Thomas Friedman riffs on this very point.