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Editorial -
Blackwater Wave Strikes
Constitution’s Underpinnings
By Michael Bradley
Even the least informed of Americans by now have an understanding of how
deep, murky and polluted are the political rivers of Iraq, so it seems perfectly
ironic that the American company now blamed for an increasing number of Iraqi
civilian deaths should be named Blackwater, USA.
There is no truly polite or politically correct way to describe the company,
so it is best to simply state the truth: Blackwater is a company of mercenaries
for hire.
It’s front-line staff was initially comprised of ex-Navy SEALS, U.S. Army
Special Forces and Rangers, and other experienced, elite American forces who had
retired out and yet were still in their prime and willing to risk themselves one
more time for the greatly increased pay and, in some ways, relaxed duty; that
is, the assignments were to protect U.S. State Department officials and VIP’s,
not to go rooting out terrorists or insurgents from unfriendly desert towns or
mountain caves.
The first year or two of Mr. Bush’s Iraq War these men largely performed as
might be expected from such highly trained and experienced soldiers; that is,
they did their job and were both efficient and discreet, or at least as discreet
as is possible when heavily armed in a war zone.
But then the expansive plans of Mr. Bush and his neo-con officials and
advisors failed to meet goals and timelines, and the original contracts of the
Blackwater forces began to come up for renewal. A great many of the original
hires decided they’d made some good money, giving them a boost in their personal
plans for homes, businesses and if nothing else an economic hedge against the
future in addition to their military retirement, and since they were still alive
and healthy they simply got out and went back to their families and loved ones.
According to reports, Blackwater scrambled to try to maintain the same level
of professionalism, but was hard pressed to do so at the same time that the Bush
Administration’s policies increased the demand for the company’s services.
Recent reports indicate that at the very point when the company was expanding to
meet the needs of its client, the state department, the pool of experienced
personnel was dwindling, so that in the end a variety of people with minimal if
any combat or even military experience were hired and put to work.
It seems as though Blackwater was caught in the same round-robin that the
neo-con ‘intellectuals’ in and around the Bush Administration found themselves.
It was a trap of their own making! Increasingly it was clear there was no easy
or quick way out of the Iraq morass; in fact it had begun to take on the
characteristics of a quagmire.
Just like the Bush Administration, Blackwater and its executives had few
options. If they wanted to keep the company alive and enjoy the lucrative
contracts being offered, they had to find the personnel, period.
So in the end it seems that the recruiting door was flung wide open to
virtually anyone with the scantiest credentials who was willing to carry guns
and hire out for great money to fight whomever the customer wanted fought.
Currently Blackwater’s most important if not primary client remains the U.S.
State Department, under Condoleeza Rice. There are of course additional
mercenary groups working as private contractors for other government agencies,
who have so far escaped the media spotlight, probably because they have not been
quite so colorful in their wild west, cowboy behavior. It would be healthy for
the American public to be made aware of all these companies and their
contractual functions.
But aside from such a wishful hope that the corporate owners of the media
might actually find a market advantage in allowing good investigative news
coverage, the main point is whether Americans want to allow the development of
mercenary armies working parallel to the traditional armed forces? This is the
real issue, the true point of danger!
Can a democracy expect to remain so if it is turning over its armed forces
responsibilities, and ultimately its policing responsibilities, to private firms
contracted to separate elements of the government, some of which are appointed,
not elected?
History is quite declarative on this point, and it provides an unequivocal,
resounding answer: NO. The very idea of private military or police forces is
antithetical to democracy, the concept with the small ‘d.’
The Republicans have been selling the idea of private policing, private
prison management, and now private military units for more than a quarter
century. Not unexpectedly they’ve justified the idea on the grounds that it will
be cost effective and, striking at the comfortable hearts of all of us, not
require much from us.
Of course, in the end it is far more costly, in dollars and in the corruption
and undermining of the democratic concepts and principles that are embodied in
the upholding of the Constitution.
Establishing private armies is one of the most insidious tactics that the GOP
has ever used, and it is reflective of an increasingly arrogant yet modern
plutocracy.
Lessons from the mistakes of the smug Republican plutocrat’s of the 1920’s
that led to the Great Depression are lost on the current leaders of the GOP, who
have expediently mixed religious zealotry with overreaching capitalism.
Blackwater, in the end, is more than a self-created rogue wave, it is a
dramatic storm warning of the dismal political swamp that is likely to result
from it.
It’s all too easy to forget that when capitalism overrides or is able to
ignore the natural checks and balances of democracy, it becomes fascism.
10/7/07
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