MERCIFUL MERCENARIES

MARK HEMINGWAY's "Warriors for Hire" (Dec. 18) was a refreshing relief from the smears about Blackwater that have been spread by the left over the past year. Erik Prince is a remarkable American patriot, which is why the Nation and its journalistic running-dogs hate him.

With the wise Africa hand Cofer Black now helping to run the company, a Blackwater peacekeeping mission to Sudan's western Darfur region would be the best and least expensive way to mitigate the suffering of thousands of innocent people. The African Union force and the U.N. troops are losers. Blackwater is a winner.

In my view, though, Hemingway was unfair to Tim Spicer, the founder of Aegis Defense Services. I have known Spicer for years through mutual friends, and he is a good man. Also, Simon Mann's efforts to overthrow Equitorial Guinea were laudable, not contemptible. I'm sorry that Hemingway took the mainstream media view of the attempt. Certainly the citizens there would have welcomed Mann's relief. Robert Young Pelton, whose book Licensed to Kill appears to be a source, is not as "thorough" as your author may think. I spoke with Pelton in Chicago a few months ago, and his hatred for Tim Spicer, as he expressed it to me, was odd and highly personal and seemed to affect his judgment.

RICHARD W. CARLSON
Foundation for the
Defense of Democracies
Washington, D.C.

MARK HEMINGWAY RESPONDS: I'll freely admit that Tim Spicer's story is more complex than the necessary economy of words allows. I think, however, that Mann's and Spicer's reputations are somewhat earned. Mann's recent escapades remain particularly troubling. Most people agree that any attempt by private citizens motivated by profit to destabilize a government, even one as despotic as Equitorial Guinea's, is a situation fraught with peril.

As for my reliance on Pelton, while I did find his work helpful, I began the article before I was familiar with him or his recent book came out. Of the knowledgeable people who aren't already in the private military industry that I spoke to in the course of my research, most seemed to be on the same page as Pelton. Since my article was published, though, I have had ongoing discussions with a representative of Spicer's Aegis Defense Services, and they are making an effort to be forthright in explaining Spicer's past and Aegis's actions. Spicer appears to be eager to prove he's a force for good despite his checkered reputation, and I hope this turns out to be true.

A NOMINAL DEFENSE

REGARDING Joe Queenan's "What's in a Name?" (Dec. 18): I should come right out and say that I have a daughter named Rhiannon. Like her brothers, Michael and Patrick, she has an Irish name, but besides her Irish ancestral connection, she was also named Rhiannon because it is a beautiful sounding name. No, it has nothing to do with the occult. Rhiannon was the queen of the fairies, which still are held in high esteem in many Western cultures. The Celts do not consider fairies occult. But Queenan may if it makes him feel better.

And how about that Stevie Nicks connection? Her then-20-year-old song never crossed our mind when our daughter was born 11 years ago. Until Queenan's article, I have had just one person in those years suggest a connection between the song and my daughter's name. That person was named Mary and named her child Joe. Does that suggest a phobia of nonboring names?

By the way, in those 11 years I have had scores of people tell me that Rhiannon is a beautiful name. I can guarantee that Joe Queenan's parents never heard that compliment about their son's name. Joe--now there is a name that just rolls off the tongue with a warm rhythm. The parents of a kid with a name like that must have spent all of three seconds in their search. I suppose four letters would have been a stretch for them.

It is unfortunate for the kids that had to grow up with such a boring name as Joe. But Queenan? There are all sorts of implications with that name that had to make growing up a bit difficult. But that is Queenan's cross to carry, and I should leave that alone.

JOHN ("SHAMIQUA") LAPADAT
St. Paul, Minn.

KNIGHTS OF COLUMBIA

I WAS PLEASED to read THE SCRAPBOOK's "Utter Abstractions at Columbia" (Dec. 18) concerning Andrew Delbanco's essay in the New Republic about teaching a course on war at Columbia. As a Columbia student and a U.S. Marine Corps officer candidate, I found that Delbanco's statements rang all too true for me. His essay is relevant because it highlights several situations that confront those involved with the military at Columbia.

First, as Delbanco notes, there is virtually no interaction between Columbia students and the military. Though some on campus make clear their vehement hatred for the military, the general feeling toward the military community is one of apathy, which in some ways is more difficult to confront than the passion of campus radicals intent upon criticizing the military come what may. It's easier to expose a fool and a hypocrite than it is to rally a person who simply does not care. As a member of the Hamilton Society, a campus group run by students involved with the military, I perceive this apathy to be one of the main problems that we seek to remedy. Instead of focusing on the fools that parade standard antimilitary myths such as the use of minorities for "cannon fodder," we have adopted the strategy of promoting interaction between the military community and the general student body. Our hope is that a chance to see the military up close will bring this country's defense forces into a more immediate realm for these students.

And, of course, as noted by THE WEEKLY STANDARD, there is no official officer training program at Columbia, a reality which serves further to isolate the smattering of candidates and cadets from the community at large. In the end, though, the problem is not ROTC or Columbia's decision to throw the program off campus in 1968, but the fact that our current culture no longer supports service in the military in the same way that it once did. By the time students arrive at Columbia, they have already written off the military option and relegated the notion of service to their country to an arena that is solely for the middle class, the poor, or the fools who still devote themselves to the quaint idea of patriotism. While the inclusion of ROTC and other such programs would be a huge step toward a better understanding of, and appreciation for, the military on campus, the real shift needs to occur in American culture.

AUSTIN BYRD
New York, N.Y.

THE FEMME WAS FATALE

JOHN PODHORETZ's "Lost in Translation" (Dec. 18) does a disservice to the memory of Natasha, one of the villains in the Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons. Natasha's family name was Fatale, not "Nogoodnik." However, Natasha and her fellow Russian spy, Boris Badenov, were always introduced, in the opening segment of each cartoon, as "the world-famous nogoodniks."

JAY WEISER
New York, N.Y.