Blackwater USA, one of major U.S.-based private security contractors operating in Iraq, has come under heavy criticism recently for the massacre of 17 Iraqis on Sept. 16. This incident is the latest in a string of thousands of brutal actions taken by private contractors acting as paid mercenaries in Iraq.
The massacre is getting wide coverage in the U.S. corporate press. It also has sparked outrage in Iraq. Even Iraqi
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In an attempt to calm the outpouring of anger in Iraq and to save face at home, the U.S. State Department took action to alleviate the pressure.
New State Department rules subject Blackwater—not the other mercenary firms in Iraq as of now—to greater forms of scrutiny.
The rules state that agents from the Bureau of Diplomatic Security will begin accompanying Blackwater’s protective details. State officials plan to more closely review reported incidents, record radio transmissions between security details, mount cameras in security vehicles and archive electronic records of the vehicles’ movement. The department will also expand existing communications links to U.S. military units operating in the same areas as the Blackwater details.
These changes have been presented as an effective response to Blackwater’s unjustified killings.
Congress has said it will look into removing immunity enjoyed by private contractors retained by the State Department.
But the new rules and proposals are no more than a smoke screen. They avoid addressing the real problems surrounding U.S. contractors in Iraq—their role in enforcing the colonial occupation. Rules promulgated by those who oversee and fund the war will not do anything to make Iraqis safe from Blackwater’s attacks.
The over 180,000 private contractors in Iraq are an extension of the occupation. The two cannot be separated.
Capitalist security firms are paid billions of dollars to carry out the will of the U.S. occupiers, while allowing Washington to hide the real number of combat deaths and casualties in Iraq.
They also aim to hasten the defeat of the Iraqi resistance and make the country safe for U.S. domination.
There is no way to accomplish these imperialist goals in a humanitarian way, and the U.S. occupiers have no interest in holding their employees accountable for the crimes of occupation.
Even bourgeois political analysts from the Brookings Institute have publicly cast doubt on the effectiveness of the new contractor rules.
Cases of abuse have been brought to the attention of the State Department already, yet nothing has been done. Most have disappeared from sight.
These new rules will not bring justice to the Iraqi people. Iraqis will continue to be victimized by the official U.S. military occupation forces and their auxiliaries in private security corporations—all to make profits for U.S. corporations.
The only solution is to put an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq. All foreign troops and all paid mercenaries must leave now. Anything less is unacceptable.
