Krugman: 'Useless and dangerous' mercenaries run amok in Iraq
The use of private security contractors to supplement the US military's efforts to stabilize Iraq amounts to an inappropriate reliance on "mercenaries" that furthers the interpretation that President Bush "systematically ignores everything we've learned over the past few centuries about how to make a modern government work," columnist Paul Krugman writes.
"Mercenaries, whom Machiavelli described as 'useless and dangerous' more than four centuries ago," have a larger role in occupying Iraq than during any other US military campaign, the New York Times columnist writes Friday.
Mercenaries "are disunited, ambitious and without discipline, unfaithful, valiant before friends, cowardly before enemies," Machiavelli writes in his treatise, The Prince. "They have neither the fear of God nor fidelity to men, and destruction is deferred only so long as the attack is; for in peace one is robbed by them, and in war by the enemy."
Krugman's assessment comes as Blackwater USA, the largest security firm operating in Iraq, faces increased scrutiny over its role in a Sept. 16 shooting that left at least eight Iraqis dead. (Estimates of the attack's Iraqi death toll range as high as 20.)
"As far as I can tell, America has never fought a war in which mercenaries made up a large part of the armed force," Krugman writes, citing a Brookings Institution report that private contractors have "suffered more losses in Iraq" that all coalition nations combined. "And, yes, the so-called private security contractors are mercenaries. They're heavily armed. They carry out military missions, but ... they don't seem to be accountable to Iraqi or U.S. law."
The incident this month was at least the 56th shooting involving Blackwater contractors this year in 1,873 convoy runs providing security to diplomats in Baghdad, according to State Department data reported by the Times. The rate of shootings is nearly five times higher than Blackwater's nearest competitor, DynCorp International, which in 2006 was involved in 10 shootings during 1,500 convoy runs. (State did not release comparable numbers for this year, the Times reported.)
Initial government reports detailing the Sept. 16 shooting portray a chaotic scene where Blackwater guards encountered the aftermath of a car bomb, a shootout in a crowded traffic circle and an armed standoff between guards and Iraqi security forces, the Washington Post reports.
At one point a Blackwater guard pulled a gun on his colleagues and ordered them to "stop shooting," an unnamed US official told the Post.
A two-page initial assessment of the Sept. 16 attack prepared by the State Department contradicts Iraqi witnesses who say Blackwater guards were unprovoked when they fired on a white sedan in a busy traffic circle. Witnesses in the area said the car burst into flames, killing the occupants inside, including a woman holding an infant. An Iraqi investigation has concluded the guards were not provoked.
"They used a rocket launcher or grenade launcher to hit the car," an unnamed Iraqi police official told the Post, referring to the Blackwater guards. "They were supported by two helicopters who were shooting from the air."
There are different accounts of how the shooting started. The State Department report says Blackwater guards believed they were returning enemy fire in the incident, which began just after noon on Sept. 16. Guards were escorting one "principal" -- a diplomat with the US Agency for International Development -- back to Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone just a few minutes after a car bomb exploded.
The Times reported that witnesses saw Iraqi commandos firing from a guard tower near Nisour Square, where the shooting took place. Blackwater guards could have misinterpreted that friendly fire as coming from insurgents.
At least three separate investigations are examining the incident, including an inquiry from the House Oversight Committee. It's chairman, California Democrat Henry Waxman, has accused the State Department of meddling with the investigation and encouraging Blackwater not to turn over key evidence.
Blackwater also is facing scrutiny of its actions in March 2004, when four contractors were killed in Fallujah. An report from Oversight Committee Democrats found the firm was more focused on cutting cost than protecting its employees, the Post reports.
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