Blackwater: Big Boy Rules
In case you missed it, here's The Post's adaptation of Big Boy Rules: America's Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq by our colleague Steve Fainaru.
"As US Airways Flight 1860 eased into Gate 4 at Buffalo Niagara International Airport, the pilot's voice came over the intercom: 'Can I please have your attention? We are carrying with us tonight the remains of a fallen American in Iraq. Please remain seated for the movement of the remains and for the American escorts to deplane.'
"The cabin fell silent. No one moved as the two men seated in the first row rose to gather their belongings. They were the white-gloved master sergeant who had accompanied Jonathon Coté's body from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and the American drug enforcement agent who, after a 16-month search, had recovered the headless corpse in southern Iraq.'"
Amazing. Fainaru repeatedly went into the line of fire to follow the story about the rise of Blackwater and the other private security forces in Iraq. No one came close to his reporting -- or his elegance in telling what he found. Check out the follow up chat Fainaru did about his work.
Some of what he had to say on Monday:
"Mercenaries are used in other conflict areas, and are widespread in Iraq. The commonly cited estimate is that the private military industry, largely because of Iraq, is worth roughly $100 billion and encompasses more than 100 countries. Of course accountability is so loose and the industry so diffuse it's difficult to get hard numbers. The primary reason they were used in Iraq was that there simply were not enough troops to cover the security requirements after the invasion."
"As I write in the book, it is difficult to disapprove of people who have acquired their skills in the armed forces, then apply those skills to get jobs that are fully sanctioned by the U.S. government, and which pay them multiple times more than they would make in the United States. If they started handing out $20,000 a month jobs for elementary school teachers in Iraq, they would have flooded into the country by the thousands. I do have serious questions about the government outsourcing the solemn responsibility for deciding who can kill and die for the country."
"Many of the people who get out of the military after doing tours in Afghanistan and Iraq are struggling with post-traumatic stress, and yet there's very little screening when they want to go back."
"I've always felt that the military regarded the mercenaries/security contractors with a mixture of resentment, curiosity and awe. Resentment of course because of the money and many of the incidents that have tarnished the U.S. mission, but awe as well because of not only the money they made but the freedom they enjoy. Of course most of the people who do these jobs come out of the military. It's a mixed bag, for sure."
By Robert O'Harrow |
December 5, 2008; 10:27 AM ET
iraq
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Posted by: Chris76 | December 5, 2008 5:44 PM
Talk about the Government, Bush really, shooting himself in the foot, how in hell are you to delegate "military power, position, discipline' to the open market and expect your loyal soldiers to not resent the fact that the corporate military, enabled by Bush has more money alone, put side the power, and freedom to come and go, decide who to kill or torture, and then they feel they have to increase the military and campaign to enroll more to the military when the military sees that they are better off being hired at Blackwater? What a fiasco? a Joke to this administration's failures, one after the other.
I mean, what are we missing. I can not wait until Dumb and Dumber, the President and VP mercenaries are out of office. They speak from any side of their mouths with greed, huberis and complete disrespect and ill regard for people, leadership and vision. They are the 'wrecking crew" for sure.
Good luck to President-elect Obama; forced to untangle, this tangled skein of knots this administration has tied up for the American people to figure out and unravel. What a mess this Bush/Cheney administration has been...RIP
Posted by: llafair1 | December 8, 2008 3:47 PM
Glad some one has the guts to tell it like it is. Bush and his boys have created one of the most corrupt goverments in the free world. Congress has no plans on correcting this problem since they have there hands out to. They prove the fact that crime pays, work for the goverment.
Posted by: dempsey76 | December 9, 2008 10:11 AM
Easy for you guys to Kick The Dog...this is a military situation,action-reaction.If you don't get it right..do it again a different way.Always has been this way,always will be!I am pretty sure though that I wouldn't want you at my back!!!
Posted by: scratchud | December 10, 2008 11:31 PM
What the reports on Blackwater miss is that armed contractor personnel are mercenaries. Article 3 of the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries of 1993 makes that an illegal war crime. More details are available in the soon-to-be-published book "George W. Bush, War Criminal? The Bush Administration's Liability for 269 War Crimes." Responsible journalists should identify war crimes rather than glossing over them as mere events as they are thereby participants in a cover-up.
Posted by: mikehaas | December 11, 2008 2:57 PM
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I heard Steve Fainaru talk in Cambridge this week about his book. Good story, fills in some details and expands on what can't be put in a regular article for the paper. The SOFA, as currently agreed, puts contractors under Iraqi laws and could be retroactive. What might this mean for the Justice Dept. investigation of Blackwater's shootings in Nisour Square?