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CHRIS HEDGES, NY TIMES - There are an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 armed
security contractors working in Iraq, although there are no official
figures and some estimates run much higher. . . The privatization of war
hands an incentive to American corporations, many with tremendous
political clout, to keep us mired down in Iraq. But even more disturbing
is the steady rise of this modern Praetorian Guard. The Praetorian Guard
in ancient Rome was a paramilitary force that defied legal constraints,
made violence part of the political discourse, and eventually plunged
the Roman Republic into tyranny and despotism. Despotic movements need
paramilitary forces that operate outside the law, forces that sow fear
among potential opponents, and are capable of physically silencing those
branded by their leaders as traitors. And in the wrong hands, a
Blackwater could well become that force.
American taxpayers have so far handed a staggering $4 billion to "armed
security" companies in Iraq such as Blackwater, according to House
Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman
(D., Calif. . .
Mercenary forces like Blackwater operate beyond civilian and military
law. They are covered by a 2004 edict passed by American occupation
authorities in Iraq that immunizes all civilian contractors in Iraq from
prosecution.
Blackwater, barely a decade old, has migrated from Iraq to set up
operations in the United States and nine other countries. It trains
Afghan security forces and has established a base a few miles from the
Iranian border. The huge contracts from the war - including $750 million
from the State Department since 2004 - have allowed Blackwater to amass
a fleet of more than 20 aircraft, including helicopter gunships. Jeremy
Scahill, the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful
Mercenary Army, points out that Blackwater has also constructed "the
world's largest private military facility - a 7,000-acre compound near
the Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina." Blackwater also recently
opened a facility in Illinois ("Blackwater North") and, despite local
opposition, is moving ahead with plans to build another huge training
base near San Diego. The company recently announced it was creating a
private intelligence branch called "Total Intelligence."
Erik Prince, who founded and runs Blackwater, is a man who appears to
have little time for the niceties of democracy. He has close ties with
the radical Christian Right and the Bush White House. He champions his
company as a patriotic extension of the U.S. military. His employees, in
an act as cynical as it is dishonest, take an oath of loyalty to the
Constitution. But what he and his allies have built is a mercenary army,
paid for with government money, which operates outside the law and
without constitutional constraint. . .
If the United States falls into a period of instability caused by
another catastrophic terrorist attack, an economic meltdown that
triggers social unrest, or a series of environmental disasters, such
paramilitary forces, protected and assisted by fellow ideologues in the
police and military, could ruthlessly abolish what is left of our
eroding democracy. War, with the huge profits it hands to corporations,
and to right-wing interests such as the Christian Right, could become a
permanent condition. And the thugs with automatic weapons, black
uniforms and wraparound sunglasses who appeared on the streets in New
Orleans could appear on our streets.
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20070603_What_if_our_
mercenaries_turn_on_us_.html
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CHRIS HEDGES, NY TIMES - There are an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 armed
security contractors working in Iraq, although there are no official
figures and some estimates run much higher. . . The privatization of war
hands an incentive to American corporations, many with tremendous
political clout, to keep us mired down in Iraq. But even more disturbing
is the steady rise of this modern Praetorian Guard. The Praetorian Guard
in ancient Rome was a paramilitary force that defied legal constraints,
made violence part of the political discourse, and eventually plunged
the Roman Republic into tyranny and despotism. Despotic movements need
paramilitary forces that operate outside the law, forces that sow fear
among potential opponents, and are capable of physically silencing those
branded by their leaders as traitors. And in the wrong hands, a
Blackwater could well become that force.
American taxpayers have so far handed a staggering $4 billion to "armed
security" companies in Iraq such as Blackwater, according to House
Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman
(D., Calif. . .
Mercenary forces like Blackwater operate beyond civilian and military
law. They are covered by a 2004 edict passed by American occupation
authorities in Iraq that immunizes all civilian contractors in Iraq from
prosecution.
Blackwater, barely a decade old, has migrated from Iraq to set up
operations in the United States and nine other countries. It trains
Afghan security forces and has established a base a few miles from the
Iranian border. The huge contracts from the war - including $750 million
from the State Department since 2004 - have allowed Blackwater to amass
a fleet of more than 20 aircraft, including helicopter gunships. Jeremy
Scahill, the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful
Mercenary Army, points out that Blackwater has also constructed "the
world's largest private military facility - a 7,000-acre compound near
the Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina." Blackwater also recently
opened a facility in Illinois ("Blackwater North") and, despite local
opposition, is moving ahead with plans to build another huge training
base near San Diego. The company recently announced it was creating a
private intelligence branch called "Total Intelligence."
Erik Prince, who founded and runs Blackwater, is a man who appears to
have little time for the niceties of democracy. He has close ties with
the radical Christian Right and the Bush White House. He champions his
company as a patriotic extension of the U.S. military. His employees, in
an act as cynical as it is dishonest, take an oath of loyalty to the
Constitution. But what he and his allies have built is a mercenary army,
paid for with government money, which operates outside the law and
without constitutional constraint. . .
If the United States falls into a period of instability caused by
another catastrophic terrorist attack, an economic meltdown that
triggers social unrest, or a series of environmental disasters, such
paramilitary forces, protected and assisted by fellow ideologues in the
police and military, could ruthlessly abolish what is left of our
eroding democracy. War, with the huge profits it hands to corporations,
and to right-wing interests such as the Christian Right, could become a
permanent condition. And the thugs with automatic weapons, black
uniforms and wraparound sunglasses who appeared on the streets in New
Orleans could appear on our streets.
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20070603_What_if_our_
mercenaries_turn_on_us_.html
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