Sinking in a Swamp Full of Blackwater
“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster,” Nietzsche said. “And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”
We’re gazing into the abyss all right, and Blackwater is gazing back.
Besides having an army for hire, brave kids who are paid to fight so that most Americans are not personally touched by war, we have the real mercenaries. And they’re a spooky cadre, careening outside the laws of Iraq, the United States and the military.
President Bush continues to preach that we must defeat the “dark ideology” of extremists with “a more hopeful vision.”
But the compromises W. makes to slog on in Iraq, be it with warlords, dictators or out-of-control contractors, are spreading a dark stain on America’s image.
“Blackwater appears to have fostered a culture of shoot first and sometimes kill, and then ask the questions,” said Representative Elijah Cummings, a Democrat, yesterday at a House hearing.
The Times reports today that Blackwater’s explanation of an incident in Baghdad on Sept. 16 that left 17 dead and 24 wounded is sketchy.
It seems as though a bullet struck an Iraqi man driving his mother to pick up his father, a pathologist, at the hospital. The dead man’s weight, The Times reports, “probably remained on the accelerator and propelled the car forward” toward a Blackwater convoy.
Blackwater guards then unleashed a spray of gunfire and explosives, even though witnesses did not see anyone shooting at the American convoy and even though Iraqis were turning their cars around and escaping the scene.
Newsweek quotes the Iraqi national police as saying that Blackwater vehicles “opened fire crazily and randomly, without any reason.”
The Blackwater desperados are a sinister symbol of how little progress we’ve made in Iraq, that V.I.P.’s - or “packages,” as the contractors call them - can’t make a move in the country without the high-priced hired guns of the State Department.
Americans have been antimercenary since the British sent 30,000 German Hessians after George Washington in the Revolutionary War.
But W. outsourced his presidency to Cheney and Rummy, and Cheney and Rummy went to war on the cheap and outsourced large chunks of the Iraq occupation to Halliburton and Blackwater. The American taxpayer got gouged, and so did the American reputation.
The mercenaries inflame Iraqis even as Gen. David Petraeus tries to win their trust.
Henry Waxman, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, summoned the 38-year-old crew-cut chairman of Blackwater, Erik Prince, to defend his private security company yesterday.
Once there was the military-industrial complex. Now we have the mercenary-evangelical complex.
Mr. Prince, a former intern to the first President Bush and a former Navy Seal, is from a well-to-do and well-connected Republican family from Michigan.
He and his father both have close ties to conservative Christian groups. His sister was a Pioneer for W., raising $100,000 in 2004, and Erik Prince has given more than $225,000 to Republicans.
Blackwater, in turn, has been the beneficiary of $1 billion in federal contracts, including a no-bid contract with the State Department worth hundreds of millions.
Mr. Waxman yesterday called the State Department “Blackwater’s enabler.” His committee staff summarized State Department reports revealing a cascade of Blackwater trouble.
“In a high-profile incident in December 2006, a drunken Blackwater contractor killed the guard of Iraqi Vice President Adil Abdul Mahdi. Within 36 hours after the shooting, the State Department had allowed Blackwater to transport the Blackwater contractor out of Iraq.”
The State Department chargé d’affaires “suggested a $250,000 payment to the guard’s family, but the Department’s Diplomatic Security Service said this was too much and could cause Iraqis to ‘try to get killed.’ ” In the end, they agreed on a $15,000 payment.
“The State Department took a similar approach,” the report stated, “upon receiving reports that Blackwater shooters killed an innocent Iraqi, except that in this case, the State Department requested only a $5,000 payment to ‘put this unfortunate matter behind us quickly.’ ”
Mr. Prince was pressed by Representative Paul Hodes about the penalty paid by the Blackwater employee who, while drunk and off-duty at a Christmas party, killed the Iraqi guard.
The man was fired. And he had to pay his own airfare home and forfeit his bonuses, amounting to a loss of about $14,697 - slightly less than the amount paid to the family of the Iraqi he blew away.
Maureen Dowd, winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary, became a columnist on The New York Times Op-Ed page in 1995.
Wisconsin Rep. David Obey’s recommendation that Americans pay a surtax to finance Dubya’s occupations of other nations is the only way to get Americans interested in this issue.
The annual surtax bill each American receives could list out the amounts being spent in various categories. Americans would not be allowed to use credit cards to pay the tax and since they probably won’t be able to get a home equity loan to pay it, they might start paying attention.
If that doesn’t get their attention, anybody missing the tax payment deadline should be conscripted to work for minimum wage providing “support services” in Iraq until they have paid off the debt .
It’s absolutely stunning to me that no law - American OR Iraqi - applies to these guys. I’d say international criminal laws would, but there’s NO way this administration would ever consent to such an event…..
I like your idea, andersdl. This would be my approach. We are spending 120,000,000,000 dollars a year in Iraq. The cost of this war PLUS the military budget for the year come to about $8,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. I think that at the end of each year a bill should be sent to each person in the U.S., man, woman and child. A family of four would owe around $32,000. If they can’t pay up, then proceed as you have outlined.
Isn’t it amazing what we can find out with simple math if we think about things a bit. It as been reported that the yearly military budget is now around 650 BILLION dollars a year. I rounded up for simple math in the paragraph above. Even without the Iraq and Afghanistan wars that comes to $6500 a year for EVERY man, woman and child in the U.S., or $26,0000 a year for the military without any wars going on. Who is really paying for all of this? Is it ALL borrowed money from China, Japan and Saudi Arabia? I’m not sure I trust my own math but 650 billion divided by 300 million comes out to about $6500 dollars. Simply astounding. It costs real dough to maintain an empire. What the hell is wrong with us?
Actually my math WAS wrong. Whew. The Iraq war is only costing each man, woman and child about $2600 a year for the total military budget including Iraq. Without Iraq that figure falls to about $2200 a year, or $8800 a year for a family of four. MUCH less expensive than that which I falsely stated above. Of course this is MUCH more affordable, but I still think we should pay as we go instead of borrowing from China. Heck. Only $8800 a year? Hell yeah, then, lets attack Iran, as we can well afford it. Wouldn’t you gladly pay, oh, say, $12000 a year from your family to pay for more of George’s wars?
“The State Department chargé d’affaires “suggested a $250,000 payment to the guard’s family, but the Department’s Diplomatic Security Service said this was too much and could cause Iraqis to ‘try to get killed.’ ” In the end, they agreed on a $15,000 payment.”
This is some sort of sick joke right? They honestly think there would be droves of Iraqi’s that ‘try to get killed’? Considering we’ve already managed to kill over half a million can you imagine how many we’d kill if they would just “try to get killed”…These entities are not even human, sub-human is too kind a term; living, breathing evil perhaps?
AmeriKKKa the real threat to world peace
Just an interesting side note. Contemplating building an eco friendly home, I studied up on plumbing options.
One kind of water comes into your house, but two kinds of water leave. The water draining from your sinks, showers, and washing machines is called gray water.
And the water carrying the piss and poop from the toilet and headed for the sewer or septic tank?
BLACK WATER
bush and his gang should not be allowed to keep one penny of profit,they made off ‘their’war and they should be made to pay out of their own pockets,to restore iraq and the multitude of victims…but this scenario is a way bigger fantasy,than taxing citizens.. way to go!give the hogs,more wash.nancy pelosi as speaker of the house,has the power to demand an investigation into the billions of our dollars misappropriated and’missing’why isnt she doing that for us ??no,she just handed him mega-billions,more…but those same bastards say we cannot’afford’national healthcare….we have paid for a myriad of ‘private’security firms…blackwater,caci,titan,triplecanopy..how will we sort out who did what ??bush,pelosi and the mercenaries,have made every man,woman and child in america a ‘monster’ party to genocide,looting,mayhem and murder.
Blackwater USA is crap and blackwater is but one of many names for hydro-carbon. Better known to fossil-fueled terrorists as black gold, Texas tea, crude or just plain oil.
Make no mistake what Operation Iraqi Liberation (a.k.a., “freedom”) is about and for whom.
MS. DOWD states, “But W. outsourced his presidency to Cheney and Rummy, and Cheney and Rummy went to war on the cheap and outsourced large chunks.” I would correct the “on the cheap” given that the Blackwater “private” soldiers receive about $120,000 a year as compared to what conventional soldiers make (about $35,000-40,000 or less). This is HARDLY on the cheap. What it IS doing is hemorrhaging funds that would be better spent on domestic infrastructure and instead diverting them to the likes of the dear mr. prince, another ostensibly NOT prince of peace, who thinks his profits are in the name of Jesus. Apologies to all touched by this madness for what it’s worth, and once again the faith conveyed that KARMA will take care of all of them. This cycle has to be one of the ugliest regurgitations of the worst in human nature, made all the worse because civilization SHOULD have learned from history and such obvious mistakes. Mankind is too far down the evolutionary track to fall into this abyss without enough blinking or raging on against the dying of the light.
Gen Petraeus is guarded by a Blackwater merc detail. Wonder if that sends the right message to our troops. You know, the ones he’s supposedly “leading”…
Personally, I’d want to be protected by men loyal to me and America, not some right wing nut with a checkbook. But that’s just stupid me and my pre-9/11 mindset…
“But the compromises W. makes to slog on in Iraq, be it with warlords, dictators or out-of-control contractors, are spreading a dark stain on America’s image.”
“America’s image” has always had a “dark stain” for those willing to open their eyes and ears, whereas Dowd tries to render it as something new.
Entities to be levied with the surtax should be all people with incomes over 500K and all corporations having any contract with the federal government. But it won’t happen. Bush will veto it.
In November 2004, a UN panel described terrorism as any act: “intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act.”
Under this definition, Blackwater is clearly a terrorist organization.
As they are being paid by the US government, then the US Government is a state sponsor of terorism.
I’m afraid Bush is now going to have to invade his own ass….and it probably won’t be the first time for the little peckerwood.
Frank..Blackwater is probably protecting General Betrayus from the troops.
From what I saw of Erik Prince he was an arrogent a–h— who should be charged with murder for what his henchmen did to an innocent Iraqi family and probably many others.Black water should be destroyed before they and the rightwing nuts turn on the rest of us–in fact they have already started
A swamp is an estuary or a marsh. Productive, beautiful and expensive waterfront property. Better to say Sinking in a SEWER Full of Blackwater.
clyde paige, ezeflyer, coyotebreath et al,
These guys are a bunch of obsessed “war games” renegades who have no regard for life. Blackwater is the appropriate name for this group because that is exactly what gets flushed down the toilet when one pushes the handle. In fact, going along with that theme, I would not be surprised if these yahoos swam in the septic tank when they were kids.
Good suggestions on making Americans pay for Bush’s disastrous folly in Iraq — yes, I agree — that would get their attention and quickly end the war. Sadly, most of the Dems seem to be as invested as the GOP in making this a ‘painless’ transfer of responsibility — and the tab — to future generations, just as Bush unashamedly is going to leave his Mesapotamian mess for the next president to settle. It’s a testament to the thickness of the Big Media blinders that they can’t see this as the sniveling cowardly act it is.
As I’ve posted elsewhere her at Common Dreams, isn’t it about time Congress passed a law requiring that either private security firms reimburse us for their employees’ expensive military training (they are mostly ex-Navy SEALS or Army Rangers), or that former military personnel are prohibited from being hired by any private company with a US government security contract for at least a period of ten years after they’ve left the service?
I think this would be a good issue for the Dems in ‘08 — we already pay an enormous bill for defense, now more than all of the other nations of the world combined pay for defense, so stop wasting our money on armies of private mercenaries but, so far, only John Edwards has even brought it up.
RSJ,
” we already pay an enormous bill for defense, now more than all of the other nations of the world combined pay for defense”
We pay nothing for defense — it’s all for conquest and subjugation.
Al-Maliki is having to pretend he has some independence from his masters & is “ordering” Blackwater out of country —
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jzixVUdWc9apDuVidRdsSfKyMsOg
The Diem Pool is now open on how long he has before the empire executes him.
The Pinkerton National Detective Agency was a private U.S. security guard and detective agency established by Allan Pinkerton in 1850.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_National_Detective_Agency
During the labor unrest of the late 19th century, businessmen hired Pinkerton agents to infiltrate unions, and guards to keep strikers and suspected unionists out of factories. The most notorious example was the Homestead Strike of 1892, when Pinkerton agents killed several people in a battle with strikers, who also killed several agents, while enforcing the strikebreaking measures of Henry Clay Frick, acting on behalf of Andrew Carnegie, who was abroad. The agency’s logo, an eye embellished with the words “We Never Sleep” inspired the term “private eye.”[citation needed] The “Pinkertons” were also used as guards in coal, iron and lumber disputes in Illinois, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania, as well as the railroad strikes of 1877.
Odd that the owners of Amway, Blackwater and the Voting machine manufacturing companies are so closely related.
(Hey, what’s that comeing out of those shower heads??)
The implications of what is shaping up to be Blackwatergate are wide and deep — not only those related to Blackwater’s Iraq operatives killing civilians in the September incident (and in other previous incidents), but the broader implications of privatization of federal military and security operations — the further implications of mercenaries like Blackwater operating without restraints or accountability — the important implications of the Iraq government’s lack of any control over U.S.-contracted companies operating in the supposed now-independent country — and the bottom-line implications of great profiteering from armed conflict at the taxpayers’ expense.
These implications are examined pretty well in The Green-Dog Democrat e-zine’s Oct. 3 issue. The seven-article examination (does not include Maureen Dowd’s commentary) is posted at http://www.mytown.ca:80/green-dog/.
This Iraq adventure which you people keep refering to as WAR and I call ARMED ROBBERY is only the beginning, Iran will be attacked make no mistake because the people who run the USA are mostly fanatical Zionists who will drive this world into WW3.
These Zionists have an insatiable appetite for destruction, if they hadn’t an enemy they would invent one, and the solution to the problem is obvious. The trouble is people tend to blame all Jews but many are just like you and me, peace loving.