Blackwater

Anyone who's a reader of this blog knows that I'm no friend of Blackwater. But I'm going to defend them for a moment:

From Slate:

The report on Blackwater ultimately paints a picture of a "security enterprise that almost routinely opens fire in Iraq's streets, occasionally attempts to cover up its transgressions, and frequently is protected from censure and prosecution by U.S. State Department overseers," the LAT summarizes. The Blackwater guards seem to care little about Iraqi civilians as they infrequently stopped to help those who may have been wounded by their actions. The NYT and LAT note that Blackwater guards fired first in 163 of the 195 shooting incidents, even though the company's contract states force should be used only defensively.

Is this really any different than the behavior of our military? That, itself, doesn't excuse the actions. But the fact is that we have fighting forces (private and military) in an impossible situation. It's urban warfare with a heavily armed, unidentified enemy and in a context in which the occupiers not wanted. Who's not going to shoot first? And just like in the military, there will always be cowboys who like to shoot first. Put these highly trained killers (private and military) in anarchy and what do we expect?

As with most issue Iraq, the fault lies at the Oval Office. The people on the ground have been put in an impossible situation and are responding to survive like humans will do. I'm not sure I can be too condemning of their actions.