OT: Privatized War

[sachmo]

It's a very interesting situation, because it doesn't seem that the media makes a distinction between a civilian and a mercenary. Here in America, we don't handle civilian deaths very well. But would we be as shocked and outraged if we learned that the civilian casualty was in fact an armed peacekeeper who was armed and went knowingly into harm's way, for money?

Please note that I am not saying that there have not been innocent civilians killed in Iraq, on either side, but I personally make a distinction between security forces and private citizens.