The latest episode of "Total Makeover: Make Me a More Huggable Mercenary" is just too precious to pass up. As observers of the rise of private paramilitary forces, like Blackwater/Xe (Bush's thugs) and Triple Canopy (Obama's hired guns) know, the mercenary industry has its very own trade association, with the warm and fuzzy Orwellian name, the International Peace Operations Association.


With its Disney-esque cartoon sleeping lion logo, this group has long spearheaded the drive to sell greater involvement by the private sector in the U.S. war machine and all other U.S. and UN operations.