With the latest Blackwater screwup (or massacre, depending on which end of the gun you happen to be on) we may be looking at a quasi market decision that could end the occupation.
We have no status of forces agreement with Iraq, hence no honorable and fair way of holding any American, soldier or mercenary, accountable for crimes committed against Iraqis or their property. Given that we have slaughtered, maimed, and displaced so many of them, as this comparative chart shows, it is hard to imagine what it would take to make us leave after having had so much uninterupted fun, and building all those permanent bases.
But that aside, what people want, as Maliki well understands, is sometimes what they must have. Iraqis want justice and peace. If Blackwater leaves, the whole occupation will collapse. The cash flow to those profiting from the occupation (and being protected by mercs) will collapse (the bases are already built, and oil is going nowhere, so “security” is the only real commercial enterprise left where American companies have the corner).
Further, Blackwater does the kinds of things that Americans will not allow their own uniformed enlistees and officers to do, and it won’t take many more massacres, and public trials back home of the lowest ranking example to completely end new enlistments into the army by anyone not already an accomplished felon, or so stupid they are completely untrainable.
Wow — actually being punished for business mistakes and moral terpitude, and removed for incompetence. By the Iraqi government, no less! When can we get some of that bottled and sent to Washington!
4:46 pm on September 17, 2007
