THE Bush administration condemns the existence of militias in Iraq. At the same time, however, it countenances the existence of its very own militias masquerading as civilian contractors. The private armies of commercial firms such as Blackwater are by some estimates so large that they actually outnumber the 130,000 US soldiers in the country.
The slaying last week of 11 Iraqi civilians by Blackwater guards who claimed the US diplomatic convoy they were escorting had come under attack has thrown into sharp relief the existence and deplorable role of these mercenaries. Paid as much in a month as a US soldier earns in a whole year, the hired guns have become a law unto themselves — literally. Thanks to a ruling by the US occupation’s first supremo, Paul Bremer, these private armies are not subject to Iraqi law.
Washington claims they are doing important security work that would otherwise tie up American and Iraqi military units busy in their fight against Al-Qaeda and Baathist and Shiite insurgents. But the untrammeled power of these people, the arrogance with which they barge their way through Iraqi streets and open fire at the slightest suspicion (or sometimes it seems without even that) has rightly incensed ordinary citizens and finally, in the wake of last week’s slaughter, of the Maliki government. The immediate reaction of the Iraqi authorities was to revoke Blackwater’s license and order all its operatives to quit the country.
Three days later this action was reversed, clearly under orders from the Bush administration. Blackwater’s private army can resume operations guarding US diplomats and officials while a joint US-Iraqi inquiry was conducted into precisely what happened to the 11 Iraqis who were killed a week ago Sunday. A government official even claimed that if the original order that Blackwater leave were enforced, it would leave a security vacuum.
There is indeed already a vacuum created by the presence of these mercenary armies — it is a moral vacuum. For all its many faults, the US military is nominally accountable under the law. The Abu Ghraib investigation may have picked up only the small fry, but at least there was an inquiry. Coalition troops in Iraq are subject to the rules of war. US generals in Iraq have no control whatsoever over the mercenary armies. Indeed US officers working with Iraqi troops have complained of the way in which the mercenaries treat them. Trucks are forced off the road. Iraqi soldiers are threatened and intimidated.
In the four years of occupation, there have been dozens of incidents in which US mercenaries have allegedly been involved in murder and maiming. Yet not a single prosecution has been brought against any of these people in the US — the only place where, thanks to Bremer, they could possibly be tried. Is this really what Bush means when he talks of bringing freedom, democracy and the rule of law to Iraq? Is this not just another case of one law for Americans and another for everybody else?
