To the question of mercinary or security guard... the difference is the security guard on the armored car is in his own damn country, you send a hired gun into a foriegn land, it is a mercinary, just like when you pass a serries of laws which abridge American freedom it is NOT a patriot act, or when soldiers attack soldiers in an occupied nation they are not terrorists... lets revive George Orwell... don't reinvent the language to put a happy face on evil. Fact is Blackwater also sent Chilean mercs in, saying it was because they spoke a language not used in the region, well, ain't that interesting, it wasn't because the CIA got caught teaching Chilean secret service agants (where these "contract workers" were hired from) methods of torture. Well, damn me, I suppose they are contract workers in the same way certain "families" in the US put out a contract on folks who get in the way of their nepharious business ventures.
Yes I feel sorry for them and their families... I feel agony for the children we killed in reprisal the next day... and I have a great idea about how to honnor their memories... get the hell out of Iraq.
Cheers
Larry