Blackwater Blues

Machiavelli disdained mercenaries, which should tell you something. And so did America’s Founding Fathers. But for a variety of political and economic reasons the Bush administration has increasingly come to rely on a privatized form of warfare. The war in Iraq has been profitable for many American companies, most notably the North Carolina based firm of Blackwater USA . But in more ways than not these firms have undermined America’s efforts in Iraq. Indeed, private security firms like Blackwater have been implicated in numerous incidents – the torture and abuse of prisoners, unprovoked shootings, and even the sale of weaponry to insurgents – that have greatly complicated America’s situation in Iraq.

The recent shootout out involving Blackwater security personnel is a case in point. Eleven Iraqi civilians were killed, including a mother and her infant daughter, after Blackwater employees opened fire on an Iraqi vehicle that failed to stop when ordered. The incident grew so heated that U.S. troops founded themselves in the middle of an armed standoff between Blackwater and the Iraqi Army while one Blackwater employee threatened to shoot another. In short, Blackwater had somehow managed to tick off every faction imaginable, except their stockholders.

Blackwater is proving to be divisive in many other ways; Blackwater personnel tend to make ten times what ordinary grunts make, engendering tremendous resentment among U.S. troops. Further, firms like Blackwater operate largely outside Iraqi and U.S. law, which means that they are almost entirely unaccountable (hence they are deeply resented by the Iraqi government).
The United States has 160,000 private contactors in Iraq, and 50,000 fit in the category of being mercenaries. Perversely, it is in their financial interests that Iraq remains the kind of place where their services are needed. Firms like Blackwater will continue to make a killing so long as the carnage continues.

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