After Watergate and Whitewater, who was the genius who called that company Blackwater? Seems like a scandal waiting to happen. And it did happen.
By now most of you have heard about the so-called Blackwater incident in Iraq, where private security contractors in Iraq killed 10 people and wounded 10 in an incident whos facts are still being debated.
Many Iraqi witnesses, including those hospitalized by the bullet wounds from the ensuing gunfire, say that the security guards opened fire for no reason. CNN.com tells the story of an Iraqi lawyer on his way back from the courthouse being shot 4 times in the back (and his car shot 8 times more) as he attempted to leave the scene of the Blackwater covoy. And another man says he was aboard a minibus coming home from work when the shooting started, and as he attempted to flee, he was shot 3 seperate times. Once kept running, twice started crawling, and then finally a third time that kept him down for good. It was like someone was specifically trying to kill him. He claims the shooting went on for 30 minutes.
Blackwater disputes this claim, and says that they were fired on, and were defending themselves. Witnesses don't back up the "fired on" story. And there doesn't seem to be any evidence of that.
Now on the incident itself, it seems like a lot of innocent people got killed. There's hasn't been any proof offered by Blackwater that they were fired on - and the high number of innocent civilian casulties seems to back up the claim that Blackwater acted recklessly.
In my head, what likely happened was that there was some type of traffic jam or traffic accident, and the convoy found itself having to slow down. Then other Iraqi cars got too close for comfort. And so the security guards do what they do, shouting at people and then finally firing at them to get them to get out of the way. I can see this as being standard practice - come to close to me in Iraq and I'm going to shoot your car up.
On the one hand, Iraqis should recognize this as happening all the time and avoid these convoys when they see them. Turn off the street, pull to the side, whatever. Get out of the way because the convoys have guns and people willing to fire them for any provocation - real or imaginary.
On the other hand, it seems wrong in so many ways. These private contractors ("mercenaries" is the technical term I guess for private military) operate without respect for Iraqi citizens safety AT ALL. Not one bit of respect shown for anyones safety but the person they are protecting. They don't stop at red lights, block streets at will, and damage personal property without remorse. They act like they are above the law... well, probably because it appears they are above the law.
One of their favorite techniques is to ram the car in front of them that is going too slow for their tastes. Even the Iraqi police tremble in fear when they pass through. And like we see here, security guards suspected of using excessive violence and killing innocent civilians and traffic cops can't even be interviewed or held accountable for their actions. As a corporation, they can just shrug their shoulders and say "no comment" when asked about the possibility that they murdered 10 people. How convenient.
It takes a lot of effort to get the U.S. military to hold the bad actions of its own personnel to account. But it does happen - Abu Gharib, and when the occasional soldier goes crazy and rapes and kills a local Iraqi girl. They eventually act. But why, when the private companies act this way, do they go back into "denial" mode instead of doing the right thing and arresting the perpetrators?
And doesn't all this seriously undermine the trust ordinary Iraqis have in Americans in general? One Blackwater convoy shoots up a private Iraqi car, and all the good will American troops may have earned in keeping the streets safe and playing with children and kissing babies goes up in smoke. It takes hundreds of hours to build up trust and goodwill, and 1 minute to destroy it.
(And P.S., These private mercenaries are also likely paid 3 to 6 times the salary of the enlisted military person. Isn't the average U.S. military serving in Iraq upset that these people are doing the same job they are but getting 3 or more times the money?)