Blackwater undermining US Mission in Iraq.

posted Tuesday, 2 October 2007

Yesterday's Blackwater hearings showed how Blackwater was undermining the US mission in Iraq. Despite a State Department gag order on its employees testifying before the House Government Oversight Committee, the hearings provided extensive evidence that Blackwater was a liability in Iraq because of their alienation of the Iraqi people, their overcharging the government, and their ability to operate in Iraq totally above the law.

Their actions in Iraq amount to war crimes under the International Criminal Court. And yet, none of that matters to the Bush administration, who rewards people solely based on loyalty and not on the merits. This will turn out to be one of the administrations that practiced the most cronyism in US history. The shootings of civilians that Blackwater was engaged in were simply the tip of the iceberg as far as many people were concerned.

Blackwater has racked in $1 billion worth of contracts without any kind of competitive bidding process. Subsequently, they have charged the government six times as much for each person that they hired as the government would for one of their own soldiers. And not only that, it turns out that they were charging twice for the same people.

In the light of these findings, the government must act quickly to end the practices of war profiteering. Congress should act quickly on the Truman Commission, the bill that would provide real oversight for people who are doing business with the military and ensuring that there is no war profiteering. The government should place all contractors under the code of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and allow the Iraqi government to pass and enforce laws regarding contractors. We should not allow the Neocons to use them as an occupying force after Bush has left office.

tags: blackwater henry waxman iraq war profiteering truman commission

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Blackwater undermining US Mission in Iraq.