re: #148 Killgore Trout

Kos: Proud of “Screw Them”
Many things have changed, others remain the same. He’s free to have his own opinion and I’m free to find it reprehensible.

While their deaths (and subsequent desecration) were tragic, they were paid mercenaries (and paid well - about $30,000 a month—tax free—in US taxpayer dollars to each—figure Blackwater had at least a 90% markup per person that they charged the US for these trained soldiers). By comparison, enlisted soldiers who were also at risk (and dying) in Iraq got paid about $1,600 a month in base salary and didn’t have the option of working for five months and saying, “Fuck it, I think I’ll take my money and go home.”

In other words, they were paid for the risks they took. That doesn’t reduce the tragedy of their deaths, but they were there by choice and for profit.