Checkbook Imperialism: The Blackwater Fiasco

Please, please, I tell myself, leave Orwell out of it. Find some other, fresher way to explain why "Operation Iraqi Freedom" is dependent upon killer mercenaries. Or why the "democratically elected government" of "liberated" Iraq does not explicitly have the legal power to expel Blackwater USA from its land or hold any of the 50,000 private contractor troops that the U.S. government has brought to Iraq accountable for their deadly actions.

Were there even the faintest trace of Iraqi independence rising from the ashes of this failed American imperialist venture, Blackwater would have to fold its tents and go, if only in the interest of keeping up appearances. After all, the Iraqi Interior Ministry claimed that the Blackwater thugs guarding a U.S. State Department convoy through the streets of Baghdad fired "randomly at citizens" in a crowded square on Sunday, killing 11 people and wounding 13 others. So the Iraqi government has ordered Blackwater to leave the country after what a government spokesman called a "flagrant assault ... on Iraqi citizens."

But who told those Iraqi officials that they have the power to control anything regarding the 182,000 privately contracted personnel working for the U.S. in Iraq? Don't they know about Order 17, which former American proconsul Paul Bremer put in place to grant contractors, including his own Blackwater bodyguards, immunity from Iraqi prosecution? Nothing has changed since the supposed transfer of power from the Coalition Provisional Authority, which Bremer once headed, to the Iraqi government holed up in the Green Zone and guarded by Blackwater and other "private" soldiers.

They are "private" in the same fictional sense that our uniformed military is a "volunteer" force, since both are lured by the dollars offered by the same paymaster, the U.S. government. Contractors earn substantially more, despite $20,000 to $150,000 signing bonuses and an all-time-high average annual cost of $100,000 per person for the uniformed military. All of this was designed by the neocon hawks in the Pentagon to pursue their dreams of empire while avoiding a conscripted army, which would have millions howling in the street by now in protest.

Instead, we have checkbook imperialism. The U.S. government purchases whatever army it needs, which has led to the dependence upon private contract firms like Blackwater USA, with its $300-million-plus contract to protect U.S. State Department personnel in Iraq. That is why the latest Blackwater incident, which Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki branded a "crime," is so difficult to deal with. Iraqis are clearly demanding to rid their country of Blackwater and other contractors, and on Tuesday the Iraqi government said it would be scrutinizing the status of all private security firms working in the country.

But the White House hopes the outrage will once again blow over. As the Associated Press reported on Monday: "The U.S. clearly hoped the Iraqis would be satisfied with an investigation, a finding of responsibility and compensation to the victim's families--and not insist on expelling a company that the Americans cannot operate here without." Or, as Ambassador Ryan Crocker testified to the U.S. Senate last week: "There is simply no way at all that the State Department Bureau of Diplomatic Security could ever have enough full-time personnel to staff the security function in Iraq. There is no alternative except through contracts."

Consider the irony of that last statement--that the U.S. experiment in building democracy in Iraq is dependent upon the same garrisons of foreign mercenaries that drove the founders of our own country to launch the American Revolution. As George Washington warned in his farewell address, once the American government enters into these "foreign entanglements," we lose the Republic, because public accountability is sacrificed to the necessities of war for empire.

Despite the fact that Blackwater USA gets almost all of its revenue from the U.S. government--much of it in no-bid contracts aided, no doubt, by the lavish contributions to the Republican Party made by company founder Erik Prince and his billionaire parents--its operations remain largely beyond public scrutiny. Blackwater and others in this international security racket operate as independent states of their own, subject neither to the rules of Iraq nor the ones that the U.S. government applies to its own uniformed forces. "We are not simply a 'private security company,' " Blackwater boasts on its corporate website. "We are a professional military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping, and stability operations firm. ... We have become the most responsive, cost-effective means of affecting the strategic balance in support of security and peace, and freedom and democracy everywhere."

Yeah, so who elected you guys to run the world?

Comments

[Striker5]

"Blackwater was the reason for Fallujah folks, the Iraqi's were so outraged by their murderous behavior, they killed four of their soldiers, burned them, dragged them through street, and hung them from a bridge. The next day our U.S. Military went in and leveled Fallujah."

That is almost completely false. Insurgents attacked the convoy. There is an insurgent video on the net with commentary by the guy who coordinated the attack (ref License to Kill by Robert Young Pelton). They beleieved BW were CIA personnel.

After they were killed, the savages came out and desecrated the bodies. This sparked Marines entering Fallujah for a brief operation, which was canc'd by the pantywaist Army commander.

After a few months of planning, with plenty of advance warning to allow civilans to exit the city, Marines re-entered Fallujah and fought the biggest American urban battle since Hue.

That the attack on Blackwater focused attention on Fallujah is correct. But that's about it.

[bigdaddyvike]

Blackwater- the new SS. Our tax dollars, once again, hard at work. Like Chimpy will actually let Maliki throw them out. Puppet. Sad.

[fact finder]

Blackwater and the other PMGs are Bush's private hit men. Bush knows that the American Military will not fire on Americans so he / they created these mercenaries to do the job of quelling dissent in this country. Iraq and Afghanistan are only training grounds.

[zull2]

Is there any legal way to courtmartial a civilian security contractor? Or do you just try them and convict them as you would a civilian?

Because if they're only getting shipped home and laid off, there's gonna be hell to pay.

[jpshotwheels]

Blackwater is trying to take over some land in California to build a new facility just like the one they have in the Carolina's. They are also in New Orleans, they arrived before the military did. Read Jeremy Scahill's book "The Rise of Blackwater USA"

Blackwater was the reason for Fallujah folks, the Iraqi's were so outraged by their murderous behavior, they killed four of their soldiers, burned them, dragged them through street, and hung them from a bridge. The next day our U.S. Military went in and leveled Fallujah.

The Iraqi's are about fed up with the American presence and so they should be. I hope Maliki doesn't suck up to Bush again, be gone with all the contractors in Iraq. Bring our troops home. Please leave Iran alone. Bush is probably on the phone with the media, keep that O.J. story going, so I can continue my wars.

[horhay]

Checkbook imperialism without even considering balancing the checkbook. If a mercenary army can take root in the US, does that mean we should start forming our own militias? Are we going to have to forcibly remove the Bush bastards from office?

I signed a petition to keep a Blackwater training facility out of southern California, here are some links:
http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/petition/Blackwater

http://www.copswiki.org/twiki/bin/view/Common/
StopBlackw­aterWebPet­ition

I commented to Senators Boxer, Feinstein, and der Governator that Blackwater and mercenaries would not be needed if our National Guard units were where they are supposed to be stationed, here in the US. The National Guard is the "well regulated militia" of the US. Bush sent them away into a warzone in a foreign land, another very stupid and criminal act among many.

http://www.antiwar.com/lind/?articleid=3651

[DrPaulProteus]

It's interesting that the mainstream media articles about Blackwater rarely, if ever, seem to use the word "mercenary". It's always "contractors".

[realitytrumpsbull]

The only resolution to the Blackwater question is impeachmen­t...

[bedrocklib]

Another slap in the face of our military from this administration.
The Blackwater Mercenaries protect the U.S. State Dept. employees while our troops are stuck in the middle of a civil war.
Gen. Betrayus is out giving political cover for the coward he shills for while our troops suffer and die.
We illegally invaded another country, we continue to occupy that country and wound and murder their citizens while our troops are ready to collapse.
We are not any safer at home while our troops continue in Iraq.
When will the Justice Dept., Congress, Military and the American people finally say enough?

[easyb]

"Checkbook Imperialism" - there's something seriously wrong and unAmerican in this. Don't want to be any part of it. Makes me want to withold my taxes until they stop it. Call it "checkbook accountability".

[rmreddicks]

"Yeah, so who elected you guys to run the world?"

Same people who 'elected' bush. Or perhaps that's hstddeJfkL­bjrmn'ford­'maybesome­jimmyrwr1h­illary'shu­bby2&thene­xtone.

Must of been us.

[Podewumun]

George Bush: "Wuddya mean mah 'counts overdrawn? I still have checks in my checkbook!".

[WilliePilgrim]

Plus...it'­s not working. Seems to be a commonality among cost plus contractors. Solving the problem really isn't in either their job description. nor is it in their best interests.
Have they got that new revolving door to the FWOP (Future War On Paranoids) framed-in yet? No frame? No worries...­here's the one the nation's founders used, and we're obviously not using it for the time being.

[RabbiOmar]

Why do we even have a mercenary army? Right wingers need to understand that the mercenary army recruits experienced military personnel by offering more money. This weakens our military, adds to our national debt and as other bloggers have pointed out, takes away accountability. WHERE IS CONGRESS' SPINE? WHY ARE THEY FUNDING THIS?

[IntegrityIntact]

Iraqis should persist and insist on having these Blackwater goons removed from the country. Blackwater isin't in the business of protecting diplomats--only imperialists and those with likeminded agenda.

"Defending Democracy"--what a crock of shit Erik Prince. Safeguarding diplomats--what gave you that idea--there is no damn diplomacy going on in Iraq! Only the genocide and plundering of the Iraqi nation and its people.

[researcher]

the iraqis persist and insist?

they are it is called IED's and then we call them terrorists.

the iraqi government bought and paid for by the USA taxpayers on money loaned from china.

we are an imperialist country and until we see that hard times will prevail for most americans but not the few who benefit from our imperialism.

the history of the human race demostrates that the many will kill and die for the wealth of the few.

now the question is: is the problem the many or the few.

the many are ignorant and the few are smart but oh the karma with being that smart.