Just days after the Iraqi government temporarily revoked the license of Blackwater, the largest private security contractor in Iraq, the U.S. embassy has told all personnel to stay inside the Green Zone. LA Times quotes unhappy U.S. diplomats describing the blow to their work. "There is no point of having a diplomatic mission," in Iraq, one diplomat said, if they cannot even leave the heavily fortified Green Zone.
The Iraqi government is considering revoking immunity from all foreign private security contractors--a law put in place by the U.S. during the formal occupation. All of this is bad news for the Bush Administration, which may no longer be able to outsource the war to America's mercenaries, whose casualties do not show up on Department of Defense lists. And it speaks volumes that the Bush administration, so recently touting the improved security in Baghdad, now cautions its own personnel not to travel outside the U.S. compound.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Hotwater
Posted by Dr. Strangelove at 11:01 AM
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3 comments:
I believe that if you add up all the private "security" companies (i.e. mercenaries), they are the second largestest contingent in among the Coalition Forces. I believe they have a similar or larger sized force than Britain!
Having them kicked out at the same time that the deployment times for the troops used in "The Surge" are coming due is a huge problem for the Bush administration.
Yet more evidence that the Bush-Rumsfeld plan for privatized military occupation is a complete failure.
Oh, and let's not forget that these groups are getting kicked out because they shot up a bunch of innocent bystanders while escorting a State Department official in a motorcade.
These groups don't operate according to the rules of engagement that restrain our regular military.
The final irony: These groups were also up their necks in Abu Gharib but avoided any attempt at imposing Congressional oversight. Will the Iraqi government succeed where the pre-2006 Congress failed???
I think Maliki will never have any chance of a political solution in his country if the he cannot exert any control over thousands of foreign mercenaries hired by the US. It's also part of a power struggle. Maliki wants the US to leave (no matter what he says) because only under that condition can the shi'ite parties womp the sunnis.
There is another little aspect to all this: Congressional attempts to increase leave time for U.S. troops failed. Senator Warner of VA wanted to pass a bill that would require the Pentagon to give troops as much time at home as they spent in Iraq, so 15 months in, 15 months out. (Already time at home is spent re-training rather than resting with family.) They couldn't get the votes, ostensibly because it would hamper us from "winning". What they don't want to say, but what is immediately evident, is that they don't have the manpower to keep people home for that period of time. So they really need the private contractors. Without them, they have little alternative but to call a draft if they are going to stay in Iraq for 5 years.
My fear is that the Republicans will leave this is such a mess, the Democrats will be the ones having to make the nasty draft call.
I would just point out that the whole federal government is quietly being handed over to private business. I see it in my line of work as well. And these guys don't usually do as well or understand as profoundly, the work that we are doing. Nor do they save time or money because they take shortcuts that the civil servants have to clean up in the end. Blackwater is an excellent example of that.
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