Ponderings

Beware the one bearing gifts. Captivated by the beauty of the gift we are tempted to accept not only the carved wooden marvel, but also the destruction that lies inside. In recent weeks we have learned with painful detail about the destructive gift of a mercenary army. Although the devil may reside in the details, I am increasingly concerned that the devilish detail is a mask for the simplest of facts.

Fact 1. The United States government contracts for services with Blackwater USA.

Blackwater USA is a “comprehensive professional military” (www.blackwaterusa.com) that hires and trains soldiers. A lot of soldiers. Although Blackwater USA customers include both governmental and non-governmental agencies, there numbers have grown exponentially with contracts for work in Iraq. The United States government is their biggest client.

We’re not talking chump change, we’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars of business. Some contracts were won in competitive bids, some awarded without bid. Most are for international assignments (eg: soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan), some for work formerly done by the National Guard (eg: public safety and security work post Katrina).

Fact 2. Blackwater USA is a private corporation owned by Erik Prince.

A onetime Navy seal, Erik’s life work demonstrates a passion shared between military conquest, religious dominance, and political savvy. Since he shuns media attention and prefers to ally with groups that meet secretively, information about the individual is scanty. His company, however, came into the glare of the media spotlight with the help of The Nation’s Jeremy Scahill and his book, “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army”.

Having sold the family auto parts business, Prince had capital to invest. He recognized a business opportunity as the military downsized in the late 1990’s. With the help of his Navy instructor, Al Clark, Prince purchased land in Virginia and started his first training camp. Now there are several training centers dispersed globally.

Fact 3. Prince uses Blackwater USA profits to support an array of philanthropic endeavors.

Raised in west Michigan’s Dutch enclave, Erik learned about civic responsibility, hard work, and benevolence. Like his parents before him, he gives generously.

Currently Erik is the Vice President of his parents’ foundation, the Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation, and with the profits from Blackwater USA he also established the Freiheit Foundation.

Erik’s sister, Betsy, married into the political and economic affluence of the DeVos family and the two families (with their associated six foundations) wield a lot of influence as they seek to do good.

Fact 4. These philanthropic endeavors promote free-market economics and religious absolutism. (www.acton.org/about/principles.php)

Although Erik’s family are members of the Christian Reformed Church and his mother an influential (read: generous) board member at my alma mater, Calvin College, Erik’s own faith is now expressed through the Roman Catholic church and I am less familiar with some of his philanthropic targets. The Acton Institute, the Council for National Policy, and a new conservative Catholic college called Christendom College are just a few recipients of his largesse.

Given my lack of familiarity with the Roman Catholic trajectory of the conservative movement in America, I found myself in totally new yet eerily familiar terrain. The connection between the Roman Catholic church and the National Association of Evangelicals is not immediately clear. A shared hatred of homosexuality, abortion, and communism seem to be the primary threads. Scahill studies these groups and concludes that the young Prince, “has been in the thick of (the) right-wing effort to unite conservative Catholics, evangelicals, and neoconservatives in a common theoconservative holy war.” Though I can be persuaded that Scahill may be prone to overstatement, there is no mistaking the public record listing foundation recipients.

Hidden in plain sight, then, is our Trojan Horse. We have a mercenary army which offers the tempting illusion of war making without personal sacrifice. But inside the horse? Call me a cynic, but it seems to me that using our tax dollars to fund the right-wing religious movement promising to outlaw abortion, undermine public schools, and practice laissez-faire capitalism isn’t in our best interest. This is a horse, and a mercenary army, we can do without.