Move over, Army, Air Force, Navy and US Marines ... you've been replaced by paid mercenaries. Who wudda believed it?

Blackwater USA's founder is a former U. S. Navy SEAL. See previous posting. He created Blackwater on the belief that both the US military overseas and law enforcement establishments in America would require additional capacity to train fully our brave men and women in and out of uniform to the standards required to keep our country secure. Essentially, Blackwater USA is there to protect our brave US Marines and soldiers who are too busy helping to rebuild Iraq's hospitals and child care centers to do the actual fighting.

Someone has to do the actual fighting, it seems, and Cheney's corporate ties are provding the ultimate "privatized Army."

Blackwater USA itself consists of nine separate business units: Blackwater Training Center (the largest private firearms and tactical training center in the U. S.), Blackwater Target Systems, Blackwater Security Consulting, Blackwater Canine, Maritime Security, manufacturing of custom Armored Vehicles, Parachute Jump Team, Aviation, and Raven Development Group. The (Blackwater "business" units) also have relationships with their strategic partners, Aviation Worldwide Services and Greystone Ltd.

They claim that they are not simply a "private security company"; they are a professional military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping, and stability operations firm who provides turnkey solutions.

Scarier yet, they claim to "assist with the development of national and global security policies and military transformation plans. [We] can train, equip and deploy public safety and military professionals, build live-fire indoor/outdoor ranges, MOUT facilities and shoot houses, create ground and aviation operations and logistics support packages, develop and execute canine solutions for patrol and explosive detection, and can design and build facilities both domestically and in austere environments abroad."

Who needs an Army, Navy, Air Force and the Marines anymore?