The Congress is trying to investigate Blackwater and surprise, surprise, the State Department is dragging its feet. And this is a real shocker: Being guarded by heavily-armed, trigger-happy goods isn't exactly a good plan for winning hearts and minds. The State Department is supposed to be smarter about this than, say, FEMA or the TSA would have been.
There are some damning quotes by Army officers in the third link.
Like this one:
"This is a nightmare," said a senior U.S. 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."
This one:
"This is a big mess that I don't think anyone has their hands around yet," said another U.S. military official. "It's not necessarily a bad thing these guys are being held accountable. Iraqis hate them, the troops don't particularly care for them, and they tend to have a know-it-all attitude, which means they rarely listen to anyone -- even the folks that patrol the ground on a daily basis."
And this one:
"They are immature shooters and have very quick trigger fingers. Their tendency is shoot first and ask questions later," said an Army lieutenant colonel serving in Iraq. Referring to the Sept. 16 shootings, the officer added, "None of us believe they were engaged, but we are all carrying their black eyes."
But because of Blackwater's ties to the Administration, nothing is going to get done about them unless Congress does it.
For, as has become clearly evident to all but the Kool-Aid drinkers, Iraq isn't exactly a sovereign nation. If they were, Blackwater would be gone.
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