Veteran running for Congress against ‘freedom fries’ Republican Walter Jones who now opposes the Iraq war, Marshall Adame has gained the ire of Blackwater. Openly voicing criticism over conduct he personally witnessed and a general dislike for mercenaries in general (guns for hire; No more, no less… Private Armies represent the very things we despise as a people. Servants to the highest bidder with true allegiance to no-one)has brought him an onslaught of hate mail and a Blackwater fueled campaign to prevent him from winning office. What is especially telling about this is that Adame is everything Blackwater is not.
Adame has the sort of military past that is appreciated in these parts. “I am a retired United States Marine,” he tells me. “I’m a Vietnam veteran. I spent nine months in Kuwait right after we kicked Saddam out, helping to rebuild the Kuwaiti air force. I spent four years in Egypt with Kaman Aerospace”—a military contractor—”as their logistics leader in that country.” More recently, he spent three years in Iraq working on reconstruction projects, ultimately rising to a senior position with the State Department’s National Coordination Team in Baghdad, where he oversaw the work of roughly ten Provincial Reconstruction Teams. Two of his sons have served in the U.S. Army in Iraq—one was seriously wounded in an IED attack and is still undergoing reconstructive surgeries; the other is currently on his second 15-month tour, stationed in Tikrit. Now back in North Carolina, Adame has even opened his home to a family of Iraqi refugees.
Read the article at Mother Jones
