Bush Administration Defending Blackwater

As we knew it would. This morning the New York Times says: “On Wednesday, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq complained of killings of Iraqis “in cold blood” by American armed contractors. He said Sunday’s shooting was the seventh such case involving Blackwater...Iraq’s government is threatening to throw Blackwater out of the country, a move that would have a striking impact on American operations inside the country... For years, government officials and members of Congress have debated what has become in Iraq the most extensive use of private contractors on the battlefield since Renaissance princes hired private armies to fight their battles. The debate flares up after each lethal episode in Iraq, but there has been no agreement on how to police the private soldiers who roam Iraq in the employ of the United States government.” The Washington Post says (“Blackwater's Security Force in Iraq Given Wide Latitude by State Dept” by Steve Fainaru) “Blackwater USA, the private security company involved in a Baghdad shootout last weekend, operated under State Department authority that exempted the company from U.S. military regulations governing other security firms, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials and industry representatives...The State Department allowed Blackwater's heavily armed teams to operate without an Interior Ministry license, even after the requirement became standard language in Defense Department security contracts. The company was not subject to the military's restrictions on the use of offensive weapons, its procedures for reporting shooting incidents or a central tracking system that allows commanders to monitor the movements of security companies on the battlefield.” And yet, every talking head from the military, every White House-scripted government official and Republican toady the Bush administration can put on TV is saying the Iraqis cannot be believed, Maliki cannot be believed, they are all lying, and the mercenaries in general and Blackwater mercenaries in particular are doing a necessary and stellar job in Iraq. As WaPo points out, “A one-paragraph subsection to a 2004 edict issued by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the now-defunct U.S. occupation government, granted contractors immunity from the Iraqi legal process. This edict is still in effect. Congress has moved to establish guidelines for prosecuting contractors under U.S. law or the Uniform Code of Military Justice, but the issue remains unresolved.” And the issue will remain unresolved because the Bush administration cannot continue to fight its illegal and unnecessary war in Iraq without mercenaries. And the Blackwater USA mercenaries are particularly prized by the Bush administration’s State Department, Defense Department and Pentagon because Blackwater USA guns-for-hire are deadly, unprincipled, and amoral thugs. The fact that the Bush administration loves Blackwater USA should come as no surprise since the Bush administration is comprised of deadly, unprincipled and amoral thugs.