ceilirose

The rest of the article:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/...ring/index.htm

Personally the Government is going down a slippery slope with this one. On one hand they need the bodies in Iraq and elsewhere but these employees are or don't seem to be under anyone's jurisdiction.

Where's the accountability?

To Mods: I can't seem to spell today - can one of you fix the word "defend" so it's not possessive. Thanks!

elisheva

Fixed.

I read about this yesterday...I'll come back and post when my brain is working again.

sunnykerr

The very fact that what essentially amounts to a private security force is in place to protect foreign (from the Iraqi perspective) corporate interests is very troubling to me. Not to mention that these non-military armed forces are getting their slice of the war funding to guard oil companies and the like when the soldiers going every day in the mouth of a bona fide civil war are still paid scraps, are still made to do extended tours and are still going around with substandard armour.

That being said, and I almost don't even want to say it, but even if I do think that the Iraqis have absolutely every right to feel pissed that they have pretty much been invaded and taken over by a foreign power and nobody seems to have noticed, if I were a civilian sent by my employer to work in Iraq... I wouldn't mind a bit of security to protect me.

It's a mess. The "coallition of the willing" totally started it. The Iraqis have a right to be pissed. But it's such a volatile situation... I can understand why some people may be extremely jumpy.

Which doesn't make it right, but I do understand it.

clone

Someone's got to do it....

Better than drafting us...

ceilirose

Ha..well yes that's true. But I still think they need to have some sort of accountability.

Or if there were ever a draft again - then this war would end so fast people's heads would be spinning.

sunnykerr

Yeah... while I understand the need to protect the civilian workers (and I do, as I've said earlier)... the fact that Blackwater seems to have no overseeing body to be hold it accountable is just wrong.

ceilirose

The thing too is that from what I read their average pay is $1,200.00 a day. I don't know what the average soldier gets but my guess is a lot less. From a taypayer's standpoint I'd rather give the money to the military vs lining someone's pockets.

On the flip side though -the miltiary doesn't have the manpower to do the whole job in iraq so companies like Blackwater are needed.

It's quite the mess over there on so many levels.

sunnykerr

Well, exactly. I used to think that having companies like Blackwater there was completely appalling. Especially in light of the truly crappy situations the soldiers find themselves in - having to go places where they're almost unilaterally seen as invaders, provided with less-than-stellar information and defences, made to extend their tours and repeat them right till the point where they physically can no longer be made to serve...

But I've come to understand that the inhumane treatment of the American military is a separate issue from private security firms. Civilian employees, whatever the job it is that they may be doing over there, are simply not trained to handle being targeted as terrorists and invaders. So, no matter how suspicious I may be of the reasons why civilian employees may be needed in the middle of a war... those men and women need protection.

And, even as I say this, I can also completely understand why the Iraqis think it's completely unacceptable to have people in Iraq who are not military, who have no oversight judging their conduct, and yet who have the right to shoot Iraqi civilians.

ceilirose

Blackwater does protect government employees though - State Department, Senators, Congress - all the high level people.

I'm not naive but someone making millions off of this war through the taxpayer is a bit unseemly to me. But...it's only a small portion of people in the US who really seem to care. For everyone else it's business as usual.