Beware This Blackwater Sitch
Sparxafire!
This Blackwater incident in Iraq is a Big Mess. We don’t even know the details yet, but Blackwater USA is a private security firm contracted by the U.S. government, I guess… to provide protection to U.S. people in Bagdad. An incident occurred where Blackwater personnel may have been firing at Iraqis, and what’s up with that anyway???
The Iraqi government is not pleased. It is “investigating” the event, which may be one reason why the reports of what actually happened are so foggy. In the course of this incident, as the spotlight swings around to shine on contract security forces in Iraq — forces not affiliated with the U.S. military — the questions do begin to tumble out…
Apparently there are 48,000 such contractors placed in Iraq by the U.S. government. What the hell? That’s another third of an army over there (if you consider 130,000 pre-surge troops). What are their rules of engagement? What happens when they skirmish with Iraqis or anyone else who might be there? Are they fighting a war or murdering Iraqis?
As mentioned, this is a Big Mess, and the Iraqi government seems poised to keep the spotlight on this situation with investigations and calls to “suspend licenses” for these contractor groups. There’s another question… the Iraqi government “licenses” non-military U.S. security forces?
I hated to post prematurely about this, because clearly, it’s some kind of snake’s nest with far more questions than answers, but holy soldier of fortune, Batman, this really smells bad right from the git-go! It may have the potential to blow bush’s whole war apart……….?
Leave a Reply