a sad return, the right decision

Staff Sergeant Phillip Myers was killed in Afghanistan over the weekend. He returned to the US on Sunday. And the ceremony surrounding Sgt. Myers's return to American soil at Dover Air Force Base was covered by the media, with the permission of Myers' widow.

The decision whether to permit media coverage of such sad returns should lie purely with the family. I can't say whether the Myers family's decision was right - but it is right that it was left to them to decide, rather than having a blanket ban on all such coverage as was the case under the de facto Bush Administration.

The military takes these things seriously. They treat the fallen soldiers with incredible, soul-moving respect. I wish the Old Guard had less call for its services.

can you trust a mercenary?

Some things shouldn't be privatized. One of those things is the legal use of armed force, which should always remain in the realm of the state.

In other words, we shouldn't encourage mercenaries. But we have ... especially in Iraq, with over 100,000 so-called "contractors", many of which are soldiers in all but name.

Two problems with this practice. It creates another level of incentive for corporations -- in this case mercenary outfits like Blackwater -- to support military interventions for private gain. And you can't always trust mercenaries to do what you want them to do, a problem going back to ancient times.