Accountability and Oversight
Two vital ingredients in the mix that go into the current situation in Iraq where the United States is the keeper-of-security aligned with newly-recruited and trained Iraqi government militia and police attempting to maintain some semblance of order, with the latter assaulted and decimated by rogue militias and terrorists, while the former makes reluctance use of "security" firms otherwise known as private-enterprise militias.As the Iraqi government troops are incapable of controlling their allied militias, let alone foreign Islamofascist militias bent on destroying the fledgling state along with any possibilities, however remote, of a successful population integration, so does the U.S. military find itself faced with the ongoing problem of reining in the too-enthusiastic frontier tactics of irregular militias employed on contract by their own state department.
Who have a habit of conducting their own version of hit-and-run. Wreaking unfortunate havoc among the civilian population with their trigger-happy responses to perceived threats to their own safety, while engaged in guaranteeing the security of American officials and diplomats they've been hired to protect, then hastily decamping the scene, leaving the military to clean up, make apologies and look glumly incompetent.
To the extent where the U.S. Defence Department has had to "remind" their commanders in the field that courts-martial can take place when private security guards operating under military contracts make criminal hash of U.S. military law. The Pentagon has roughly 37,000 contractors in Iraq whose numbers roughly equal U.S. troops on the ground. A by-product of U.S. downsizing of their military, post cold-war. Who knew, after all?
But it isn't only Blackwater involved as required back-up assistance, but others, such as DynCorp International and Triple Canopy. However, it's the Blackwater contingent seen to be responsible for countless episodes of needless force impacting on the reputation of U.S. personnel, and ultimately embarrassing to the U.S. administration. Their incidence of unfortunate trigger-happy encounters is double that of other security companies contracted to provide security for diplomats and elite civilians in Iraq.
Having said which, the U.S. State Department, in view of the current investigation of Blackwater, will admit to a tiny number of infractions by the company's gung-ho militia. Even admitting that Blackwater's rate of "episodes" were double that of other convoy missions, they cling to their version that of the 1,800 escort missions by Blackwater in the current year there were "only a very small fraction, very small fraction, that have involved any sort of use of force."
Seems the Pentagon and the State Department have a little misunderstanding between them. U.S. Military officials are pressing the State Department to a firmer control over Blackwater since the shooting debacle in a Baghdad square that took the lives of ten Iraqi civilians and wounding many more. The military is simmering with anger over their carefully orchestrated relationship with Iraqis now on the cusp of degradation.
"This is a nightmare" according to a senior military official. "We had guys who saw the aftermath and it was very bad. This is going to hurt us badly. It may be worse than Abu Ghraib, and it comes at a time when we're trying to have an impact for the long term." Indeed, but despite all the lightning-bluster of the Iraqi government it isn't likely the contractor will be tossed out any time soon.
There are just so many regular troops to go around, and the private contractors fill in the gaps, from force protection to guarding perimeters. Freeing up U.S. soldiers for duty on the combat front, and ensuring neighbourhood security. Both of which are iffy propositions at any time, given the casualties, the deaths both military and civilian and the freedom with which Sunni and Shia militias roam alternate neighbours creating death-agonies wherever they pass.
The U.S. military must know of what they speak in their scorn for the discipline and accountability of contracted-out Blackwater personnel. "They are immature shooters, and have very quick trigger fingers. Their tendency is shoot first and ask questions later", according to a lieutenant-colonel serving in Iraq. Fittingly enough, the company, for the most part, secures its operatives from among former Navy SEAL personnel.
As much as the Iraqi government is incensed at the presence of these mercenaries who love the action and danger their employment offers them, along with their nice fat paycheques, one can honestly posit that the larger anger at their dangerously irresponsible antics lies with the U.S. military and their ongoing loggerheads with the U.S. State Department.
But in a sense all of this is largely irrelevant in the larger picture of bloody chaos in that country, where daily attacks and car bombs kill scores of people and wound hundreds others. And where the spectre of cholera looms its black head. And where foreign terrorists continue to fray any potential for a dimly future national reconciliation.
Labels: Political Realities, Terrorism, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, September 27, 2007
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