Drunken shootouts and debauchery, meaningless death and mayhem -- the "Wild West" atmosphere created by the Bush Administration's criminal initiation and execution of the Iraq War is the gift that keeps on giving. Thanks in part to the rapacious greed injected into war-fighting by the liberal use of for-profit armed "security" companies, a brutal, unaccountable and unreliable swagger is increasingly the face of the U.S. in conflict zones around the world. The latest Wikileaks dump adds a sickening granularity to what Brave New Films showed in our documentary, Iraq For Sale: the use of private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan makes a few people very, very rich, but it's making the rest of us -- Americans and local civilians alike -- much less safe.
Summarizing the logs released by Wikileaks, the New York Times on October 25 made it clear that fat cat war junkies like Blackwater/Xe's Erik Prince have sold the American people a toxic bill of goods:
For all the contractors' bravado -- Iraq was packed with beefy men with beards and flak jackets -- and for all the debates about their necessity, it is clear from the documents that the contractors appeared notably ineffective at keeping themselves and the people they were paid to protect from being killed.
In fact, the documents seem to confirm a common observation on the ground during those years in Iraq: far from providing insurance against sudden death, the easily identifiable, surprisingly vulnerable pickup trucks and S.U.V.'s driven by the security companies were magnets for insurgents, militias, disgruntled Iraqis and anyone else in search of a target.
Shorter version: people died, are still dying, because of these Humvee-chasing war tychoons' ineptitude and brutality, and the toll includes their own employees. Worse, even when we know that these Gordon Geeko's of the war industry oversee a machine that's killing and maiming innocent people (including U.S. soldiers!), our governments seem unwilling to do anything about it:
...But whatever the constellation of reasons -- from war-zone jumpiness to outright disregard for civilian lives -- the security companies are cited time after time for shootings that the documents plainly label as unjustified. This has blackened their reputation, even if it has not lessened the military's dependence on them.
...Many of the companies apparently felt no sense of accountability. Contractors with a Romanian company called Danubia Global killed three Iraqis in Falluja in 2006, another report said, then refused to answer questions on the episode, citing a company policy not to provide information to investigators.
Lest you think this is an attitude unique to Romania, remember that the effort to prosecute Blackwater/Xe is collapsing right here in the U.S., and many of the companies cited for the worst abused continue to get paid to provide their brand of "security" in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Some of these gun-wielding mercenaries seem to be doing their best to give the Cowboy gang from Tombstone a run for their money in alcohol-fueled carnage:
...And still more recently, in July 2009, local contractors with the 77th Security Company drove into a neighborhood in the northern city of Erbil and began shooting at random, setting off a firefight with an off-duty police officer and wounding three women, another report said.
'It is assessed that this drunken group of individuals were out having a good time and firing their weapons,' the incident report concluded.
I'm sure the women injured by the bullets didn't have a very good time.
Because the U.S. has utterly failed to reign in the hired guns under their authority in Iraq, the saloon-and-pistols atmosphere has spread unchecked to Afghanistan. Remember Wackenhut? If you don't remember the name, I'm sure you remember the photos of the great job they've done "protecting" the U.S. embassy there:
I'm fed up with being humiliated -- of seeing our troops in combat zones humiliated! -- by the behavior of these unaccountable, brutal mercenary companies. That's why today, I called 202.224.3121 and told my representative that I want them to support the Stop Outsourcing Our Security Act and phase out the use of armed security contractors. I hope you'll do the same.
You can learn more about the danger posed by these war profiteers by watching Brave New Foundation's documentary, Iraq For Sale.
Follow Robert Greenwald on Twitter: www.twitter.com/robertgreenwald
Simon Jenkins: What on Earth Are America's Friends to Say?
Laila Al-Arian: Before Wikileaks, Iraq War Vets Revealed War Crimes
Heather Hurlburt: Wikileaks: War Is (Misbegotten) Hell
Coleen Rowley and Bogdan Dzakovic: Could WikiLeaks Have Helped Thwart 9/11?
Are there such things as "ethics" in a contract? How would you even enforce them?
Now lets be clear about the pictures presented. These are guards at the embassy. They are employees of a company on contract to DoS, not DoD. Neither they, nor the company, are evil, or even bad. They are, however, idiots. But they are not running around the countryside fighting the Taliban.
And interestingly, though these guys are "guards", the only guards I ever saw at the Embassy in Kabul were Nepalese, ex-Gurka's, employees of Armor Group.
Even more interestingly, a significant contributor to the Fall of Rome was its reliance on mercenaries. Foreigners who joined the legions for the money, not citizens who joined to protect the state.
Interesting parallel, unfortunately.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/148217.html
It wouldn't be surprising and the same might be going on in Pakistan. There's just too much profit at stake to let peace break out.
They bribed a town council to let them build. The townspeople voted the town council out, and refused to have them.
As they left, a huge fire started in the area. Blackwater said, "Gee, if you'd let us stay we could have put out that fire!"
It WAS our fire season.. but....
BTW-- Didn't Eric Prince move overseas to escape some war crimes issues?
The use of the mercenaries is not some conspiracy. It is, largely, our governments way to avoid the need for a draft. It is much easier to spend money on mercenaries than to spend political capital on instituting a draft.
This is ESPECIALLY true of a military which is forced to engage in Nation Building. Simply put, it is a CANNON of "good governance" that the government MUST maintain what is termed a "monoply of violence". Only the State is authorized to emply arms in its defense, through the military, as the servant of the state. This is what those in the US military are taught to beleive. And it is what they try to teach to their Iraqi/Afghani counterparts.
And then in the next breath, comes the private security contractors with guns and authorization to use them. It makes disarmament for the "militias" a little difficult. Sort of, "do as I say, not as I do". There are a lot of reasons that the private security contractors exist. In summation, none of them are good.
Having said that, the companies themselves are not evil, and certainly the people working for them are not. Its the system that allows them to employ violence with little more loyalty/accountability than a paycheck that is wrong.
Then again, there are a finite number of soldiers, and I don't see long lines at the recruiting station.
especially, don't commit what the Judges at Nuremburg called "the ultimate war crime" — launching an illegal invasion, followed by a protracted occupation.
as in: "lie down with dogs, get up with fleas."
Stupid me! I thought that it was our soldiers over there. I thought that the Commander-in-Chief had some authority over what happens over there. I guess not. I guess it is the owners of the overpaid militias and mercenaries, Blackwater and Xe, and God knows who else who is being financed by God knows whom.
Absolutely cut off all funding to these mercenaries today. They are NOT our friends. The people who own them are NOT our friends. I would venture to say that the people who are secretly funding certain uber-conservative candidates are also funding these soldiers of fortune. Ya think? They are NOT friends of the United States. They are friends of the neocon view of where we are headed in thi country if we do not stop it now.
This is the scariest thing I have read recently. For God's sake, VOTE!
What the heck are you talking about? These mercenaries do not serve some nefarious force. They are where they are because our government needs them. And our government needs them because it does not have enough men to do the job in the armed forces. We never relied on private forces to this extent in earlier wars, because the draft ensured enough soldiers.
If the U. S. armed forces truly needs more soldiers, perhaps much less could be spent on unnecessary military hardware (how many fighter jets do we need to counter Osama bin Laden anyway?) and more could be paid to every U. S. soldier, sailor, marine, and airman. It would be much cheaper than hiring the overpriced, out-of-control mercenaries from Xe.
The American Mexican border. Since American Military isn't allowed on the border then private contractors may be sent in to protect the border.
Does anyone believe illegals would cross the border with them gun toteing cowboys shooting up the place?
But really it shows what a mistake the all volunteer military is... was, and will be forever. If we had to draft to fight wars for the generals, then we would not be in Iraq EVER. And we would have chased Osama to the doors of Hell in Pakistan, and we would have been home 8 years ago!
It's not Eric Prince and the other contractors selling these mercenaries that have sold us a bill of goods. It's our government that's done the selling. Still is.
Don't think so.
However, it Obama was totally knowledgeable about all of this and condoned it, that is another story.