I agreed with most of Michael Stevenson’s column Blackwater USA actions alarming (SN 10/25), and I’d like to add one of my concerns. He argues that history has shown the fallacy of hiring mercenaries, but these aren’t the mercenaries of Rome — they’re worse. Blackwater represents a privatization of the military, a concept that doesn’t exist prior to capitalism.

Whereas mercenaries of old were expensive and unreliable, Blackwater is literally a private army. It’s a group of Americans with military training, group cohesion and modern weapons who aren’t directly controlled by the public. In short, it makes me nervous that the likes of Betsy DeVos, who was elected by no one and wields tremendous non-Democratic power, owns a company of hired guns who are out getting war experience. Aside from the profiteering and likely murder of civilians, this privatizing element is what scares me the most.