Hiring Mercenaries Is Always A Bad Idea
As the Blackwater investigation continues there have been more and more horror stories coming to light. Below is an account published in the L.A. Times from a former U.S. official.
One particularly infuriating time, I was in the town of Irbil in northern Iraq, being driven to a meeting with a Kurdish political leader. We were on a narrow stretch of highway with no shoulders and foot-high barriers on both sides. The lead Suburban in our convoy loomed up behind an old, puttering sedan driven by an older man with a young woman and three children.
As we approached at typical breakneck speed, the Blackwater driver honked furiously and motioned to the side, as if they should pull over. The kids in the back seat looked back in horror, mouths agape at the sight of the heavily armored Suburbans driven by large, armed men in dark sunglasses. The poor Iraqi driver frantically searched for a means of escape, but there was none. So the lead Blackwater vehicle smashed heedlessly into the car, pushing it into the barrier. We zoomed by too quickly to notice if anyone was hurt.
Until that point I had never mentioned anything to my drivers about their tactics, but this time I could not contain myself.
"Where do you all expect them to go?" I shrieked. "It was an old guy and a family, for goodness' sake. Was it necessary for them to destroy their poor old car?"
My driver responded impassively: "Ma'am, we've been trained to view anyone as a potential threat. You don't know who they might use as decoys or what the risks are. Terrorists could be disguised as anyone."
"Well, if they weren't terrorists before, they certainly are now!" I retorted. Sulking in my seat, I was stunned by the driver's indifference.
And we can't figure out why we aren't winning in Iraq?
7 comments:
With the downsizing of the military, we have outsouced a lot of functions. Blackwater is part of that. If you go onto any military base, you'll see lots of civilian workers.
Don't confuse your anti-Iraq opinion with these facts:
1) What Blackwater is reported to have done is without honor. If found guilty, the individuals should be punished. The company should have to stand for it's workers and their actions (same for any company, any actions)
2) As long as we have a military (or any government agency), there will be rogues.
As for winning the war vs. losing the war, I believe we no longer have a choice. We have to stabilize Iraq, otherwise we condemn that area to much heavier chaos for the next several decades and we condemn our possibilities for peace as well.
I know you disagree with the past (how we got there, etc), but hopefully your disagreement will stand aside when you look to the future of that area.
Don't just post about what should have been, but given the current status, post about what should be.
I think we've had this discussion before.
By the way, the writer of the mentioned article was in Iraq from 2003 to 2005. Her knowledge of what was going on then may be 100% right, but it may be very different than what is going on now.
I'm of the opinion that we are not (now) losing the war in Iraq. We may depending on how we try to get out. I prefer waiting until the country is stable.
I recognize the need for outsourcing, but shouldn't there be a line drawn between building bases and providing armed escorts for U.S. officials. If not we might as well just privatize our army now.
I wasn't trying to express an opinion on the Iraq war as a whole, just this particular aspect (Blackwater) of it.
I've been following Blackwater for a while now and they've got a long history of being trigger happy and have killed many Iraqi civilians. Now that the Iraqi Government has finally gotten sick of it and are asking for Blackwater to leave the country and the U.S. responds by asking the Iraqi Government sit down with our officials and talk about it instead. It's this recklessness among our hired help and the undermining of Iraqi authority that I was referring to with that last line.
As for holding these people responsible for their action, it just isn't happening. I've heard one story in particular about a Blackwater employee that got drunk and shot an allied Iraqi guard. Blackwater did the right thing and fired him, but instead of being charged with a crime he just applied for a similar job with a different company and works in Kuwait.
You said "And we can't figure out why we aren't winning in Iraq?"
That's not "trying to express an opinion on the Iraq war as a whole"?
Outsourcing is different than mercenaries, yes even outsourcing security. And they evidently have been doing a reasonably good job, no American diplomats have been injured.
There should be an investigation (FBI is doing one now) and guilty parties should be tried and punished to the fullest extent of the law. As the reporter stated, actions such as these only make matters worse.
But let's not make statements about the entire war over the actions a few rogue security people or even a rogue company.
I admit my wording was poor but if we don't start using diplomatic efforts in Iraq as well as military efforts we will lose. Sure we might make progress towards securing Iraq, but it won't last. The second we pull our troops out they'll all go at each others throats again. There's been a lot of Iraqi civilian casualties in this conflict already and our government's refusal to hold companies like Blackwater accountable for their actions basically sends the message that we don't care.
I also stand by my description of these companies as "mercenaries". They are corporations that operate outside the Uniform Code of Military Justice and get paid large amounts of money (mostly through no-bid contracts I might add) to act as armed guards and escorts in a war zone. If that doesn't meet your definition of mercenary than I don't know what else possibly could.
There are some areas of Iraq that are already semi-stabilized. There was a good article some weeks ago on Kurdistan. Seems the Kurds started soon after the fall of Saddam to re-invigorate their society. Also, the eastern part of Iraq is relatively stable.
As a part of Petraeus' work, diplomatic efforts have been extended to small groups. He found those groups to be extremely willing to work with.
Rebuilding Iraq will take a lot of time. Gen MacArthur oversaw the occupation of Japan for six years. I think Iraq is more complicated than Japan was.
Back to the mercenaries. I guess it comes down to whether Blackwater is fighting in the war or providing security. In my opinion, there's a difference. Regardless, their role is necessitated (if that's a word) by the down-sized military. If we get rid of this type of company, we would need more army MP's.
Just to reiterate, no one that I know of thinks Blackwater should get away with murder.
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