Gunslingers

The problem I have always had with “private security contractors” in Iraq is that it’s hard to really know what they are. Actually, that’s wrong. What they are is obvious: they are mercenaries.

There is nothing wrong with that, now. Those of the “Have Gun, Will Travel” profession, Knights Errant, Ronin, have been around for thousands of years. It’s an honorable living. In fact, it’s a damn good living, and it should be, it’s a dangerous occupation. That does not dismiss the question of whether we should be buying their services.

The most recent (not the first) incident involving Blackwater USA (read it here) occurred when a “convoy of U.S. personnel protected by Blackwater security contractors came under small arms fire...” according to Time Magazine.

Apparently our State Department is the primary employer of this private army. It us unclear why our State Department is being protected by hired guns. Why isn’t our army the “gun” of first choice?

Why we would pay these soldiers of fortune hundreds of thousands of dollars per man per year when a sergeant in our military has to support his family with food stamps is unclear. I can only think of three obvious reasons: (1) Mercenaries are not bound by the same rules of war as our troops; (2) Someone is getting very rich; (3) Somebody doesn't want the rest of us to know what's going on.

The State Department is itself without much information, apparently. "(State Department spokesman Sean McCormack) had no information about any Iraqi laws Blackwater or its employees might be subject to, the chain of command its employees answer to, or details of the company's contract with the State Department..." according to the Associated Press (read it here).

The cluelessness extends to the Senate. "Having visited now 10 times in Iraq, most recently just two or three weeks ago, I know full well the dependence of that nation upon contractors — contractors who are trying to refurbish their seriously deteriorated oil production facilities, their power lines, their fresh water," said Sen. John Warner, R-Va. in the same article.

What an absurd statement. It indicates that Sen. Warner doesn't understand the difference between rebuilding power lines and protecting convoys with guns.

We used Afghanis as a surrogate force to defeat the Soviets, then left the country awash in guns and fighting know-how, until the Taliban used those guns and that knowledge to protect bin Laden. Saddam was “our guy” until he decided that we had given him permission to take down Kuwait.

We can’t institute a “rule of law” in Iraq when we enforce it with mercenaries from South Carolina with tribal loyalty to each other first and their corporation second. How do we tell the Mehdi army to put down their guns and pledge allegiance to Iraq when private corporations from the U.S. speed through their neighborhoods in Suburbans with blacked out windows and shoot their civilians in the street?

The U.S. ambassador to Iraq spoke of the courage and capability of Blackwater personnel. Of course. They were trained as SEALS and Green Berets and Airborne. They are the best fighters (retired) we could train and develop. No one doubts their courage or capability.

The doubt is whether the United States should out source our shooting.