Blackwater's disregard for Iraqi lives
I survived Blackwater
A former U.S. official received the security company's services – and witnessed its disregard for Iraqi lives.
When the Iraqi government last month demanded the expulsion of Blackwater USA, the private security firm, I had one reaction: It's about time.
As a U.S. official in Baghdad for nearly two years, I was frequently the "beneficiary" of Blackwater's over-the-top zeal. "Just pretend it's a roller coaster," I used to tell myself during trips through downtown Baghdad.
We would careen around corners, jump road dividers, reach speeds in excess of 100 mph and often cross over to the wrong side of the street, oncoming traffic be damned.
But much more appalling than the ride was the deleterious effect each movement through town had on the already beleaguered people of Iraq. I began to wonder whether my meetings, intended to further U.S. policy goals and improve the lives of Iraqis, were doing more harm than good. With our drivers honking at, cutting off, pelting with water bottles (a favorite tactic) and menacing with weapons anyone in their way, how many enemies were we creating?
One particularly infuriating time, I was in the town of Irbil in northern Iraq, being driven to a meeting with a Kurdish political leader. We were on a narrow stretch of highway with no shoulders and foot-high barriers on both sides. The lead Suburban in our convoy loomed up behind an old, puttering sedan driven by an older man with a young woman and three children.
As we approached at typical breakneck speed, the Blackwater driver honked furiously and motioned to the side, as if they should pull over. The kids in the back seat looked back in horror, mouths agape at the sight of the heavily armored Suburbans driven by large, armed men in dark sunglasses. The poor Iraqi driver frantically searched for a means of escape, but there was none. So the lead Blackwater vehicle smashed heedlessly into the car, pushing it into the barrier. We zoomed by too quickly to notice if anyone was hurt.
Until that point I had never mentioned anything to my drivers about their tactics, but this time I could not contain myself.
"Where do you all expect them to go?" I shrieked. "It was an old guy and a family, for goodness' sake. Was it necessary for them to destroy their poor old car?"
My driver responded impassively: "Ma'am, we've been trained to view anyone as a potential threat. You don't know who they might use as decoys or what the risks are. Terrorists could be disguised as anyone."
"Well, if they weren't terrorists before, they certainly are now!" I retorted. Sulking in my seat, I was stunned by the driver's indifference.
The Iraqis with whom I dealt quickly learned to differentiate between the U.S. military and private contractors. The military has established rules of engagement, plus it is required to pay compensation for damages (though it is a difficult and bureaucratic process). Blackwater seemed to have no such rules, paid no compensation and, per long-standing Coalition Provisional Authority fiat, had immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law.
As we do the work of bridge building and improving our host citizens' lives, if the people providing our transportation and security are antagonizing, angering and even killing the people we are putatively trying to help, our entire mission is undermined.
Janessa Gans, a visiting political science professor at Principia College, was a U.S. official in Iraq from 2003 to 2005.
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If I was Iraqi insurgent those mercenaries would come out but they will never go back, and for each and every mercenary in those convoys surely there would be a sniper bullet in his scull as a souvenir for their safari trip. Sniper is very detrimental for the convoys if you know how to use it. I guess insurgents there don't have right information who and when is going out. Those former navy seals would really get sealed in a black bag. These scumbags obviously did not encounter real professional snipers in the field, thats why they behave in such cow boyish way. If they did they would piss their pants every time they are called to get out of those fortified buildings.
I thought that it would never come to this, but in case this political science professor considered a different purpose of the invasion than toppling Sadam Hussein and subsequent democratic nation building she might see these redneck mercenaries/"contractors" as actually implementing official US policy which is to break up Iraq whatever way will serve the purpose.
If she asks why the US would want that she should start to consider whether US foreign policy is in the interest of the US and who actually formulate it.
beware of this mercenaries for they pledge their allegiance to no law or constitution but to the highest bidder. They could easily turn out to be future gestapo squads in US. These companies train US local and federal police and we already see brutality of policemen on the rise since that training took place in the US. I am serious about this guys, it is a very dangerous precedent that people with no patriotic loyalty and no respect for law and human life are now in charge of training those who are supposed to protect citizens.