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Open letter to Hilary Clinton

Mrs. Clinton,

With the downing of the helicopter this week in Iraq with the death of American "private security personnel" (execution style), run by Blackwater USA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_USA), I'm very concerned about the use of "private" militaries now under contract by the United States Department of Defense to do out "dirty work."

Such the existence of a private militia makes me very nervous in even posting to your blog for fear of "secret" and nefarious reprisal by "uber" patriots for even mentioning their name.

I believe ALL forces doing the work of the United States SHOULD be under direct control of the United States and wear our uniform, and should not be "private."

As President (and even now as Senator on the Armed Services Comittee), could you please look to stop the trend of "Private Security." America should not be represented by mercenaries. I want full international and national law to apply to any action done in the name of the United States.

This scares me. It also scares me that the President in his State of the Union mentions:

"A second task we can take on together is to design and establish a volunteer Civilian Reserve Corps. Such a corps would function much like our military reserve. It would ease the burden on the Armed Forces by allowing us to hire civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them. It would give people across America who do not wear the uniform a chance to serve in the defining struggle of our time."

I don't want Civilians... I wan real soldiers in OUR uniform with our training and our jurisdiction.

I'm also writing my Senators (Feinstein and Boxer) on this manner.

Thank you for your attention. You *are* the best Democratic candidate for our country and I believe in you. Please don't let us or me down.

-Hunter Brown

(blog posting to www.hilaryclinton.com, originally posted in Februay 2007. Re formatted slightly in November 2007)