BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT

Five members of Blackwater were hastily charged with ‘voluntary manslaughter’ by the Government of the United States.

They were protecting US personnel in Iraq.
They were charged with unjustifiably killing 17 Iraqi civilians.

All charges have now been dismissed.

We are not sure, but we believe that over the course of the conflicts in Iraq and elsewhere, although Blackwater personnel have been wounded and killed – none of the folks they have been protecting have been lost.

We hope the defendants are not guilty of wrongdoing. We don’t know. In light of our ignorance of all the facts, we prefer to give the benefit of doubt to those forces protecting our people.
We prefer not to jump to the conclusion that our own forces are guilty, as our Government did in this case.