The Green Ribbon

Iraqis order Blackwater out

Will this decision stand, I wonder?

The Iraqi government has ordered the American private security
contractor Blackwater, which provides protection for US officials in
the country, to shut down its operations after its guards were accused
of killing 10 civilians and injuring 13 others in Baghdad.         
         

Employees of the company are alleged to have opened fire indiscriminately
  after a bomb exploded on Sunday in the Mansour district of the city, packed
  with people shopping for Ramadan. (Independent)

War on Want is calling for the company to face corporate homicide charges:

Ruth Tanner, Senior Campaigns Officer at War on Want, said: “These
horrific killings are a reminder of the havoc which private military
and security companies have wreaked in Iraq over the past four years.
There have been hundreds of human rights violations by mercenary
troops, yet not a single prosecution has been brought against them.
These new killings provide the strongest argument for legislation to
ban the use of mercenary soldiers in conflicts such as Iraq.” (War on Want)

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TomGriffin

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3 responses to “Iraqis order Blackwater out”

  1. DougtheDug avatar
    DougtheDug

    “Will this decision stand, I wonder?”
    From an article on:
    http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/13/3138/
    “The Mercenary Revolution: Flush with Profits from the Iraq War, Military Contractors See a World of Business Opportunities”
    by Jeremy Scahill
    1. “With almost no congressional oversight and even less public awareness, the Bush administration has more than doubled the size of the U.S. occupation through the use of private war companies.”
    2. “In a revealing admission, Gen. David Petraeus, who is overseeing Bush’s troop “surge,” said earlier this year that he has, at times, been guarded in Iraq by “contract security.””
    Blackwater can’t be kicked out, they and all the other companies working in Iraq are essential to keep the numbers of offical US troops down and to mask the true number of casualties in the war.
    The war should be viewed as a public/private partnership between the US Military and US Mercenaries. The links are too many and too deep to disentangle now.
    Mercenaries, many recruited from impoverished countries provide an expendable army where losses have no impact on domestic US politics. Ready manpower also removes the need to think about the contentious issue of the draft in the US.
    Blackwater will get a slap/name change/or subcontract. They’re too integral to the US forces and US manpower to ever leave now. Quite apart from the fact it’s a corporate war and getting kicked out of the swill bucket is not in the rules for companies close to the US administration like Blackwater.

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  2. Tom Griffin avatar
    Tom Griffin

    I suspect you’re right Doug. Even so there’s nothing to be gained from acquiescing in the situation.

    Reply
  3. avatar
    Anonymous

    I agree.
    Look at Abu Ghraib. How many senior officers were actually brought to account for this?
    Accoutability is an anathema both to the military and corporate world.
    Blackwater was a further descent into barbarism.

    Reply

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