Time has the
scoop:
The work of the four American civilians slaughtered in Fallujah last week was so shadowy that their families struggled to explain what exactly the men had been hired to do in Iraq. Marija Zovko says her nephew Jerry said little about the perils of the missions he carried out every day. "He wouldn't talk about it," she says. Even representatives for the private security company that employed the men, Blackwater USA, could not say what exactly they were up to on that fateful morning. "All the details of the attack at this point are haphazard at best," says Chris Bertelli, a spokesman for Blackwater. "We don't know what they were doing on the road at the time."
What the murder of the four security specialists did reveal is a little known reality about how business is done in war-torn settings all over the globe. With U.S. troops still having to battle insurgents and defend themselves, the job of protecting everyone else in Iraq--from journalists to government contractors to the U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer--is largely being done by private security companies stocked with former soldiers looking for good money and the taste of danger [...]
Among the various professional security firms, none is as renowned as Blackwater USA. Based in Moyock, N.C., the firm gets its name from the covert missions undertaken by divers at night and from the peat-colored water common to the area [...]
The security firm's website notes that "Blackwater has the people to execute any requirement." Blackwater recruits from the ranks of active-duty special-forces units--particularly Navy SEALs, Army Rangers and Delta Force troops--many of which are based in nearby Ft. Bragg, N.C. The best and brightest among private security consultants earn salaries that run as high as $15,000 a month. And as various commitments have strained the military's capacity to provide day-to-day security for relief workers and diplomats, Blackwater has prospered by filling the void. Since 2002, Blackwater has won more than $35 million in government contracts.
The current business boom is in Iraq. Blackwater charges its clients $1,500 to $2,000 a day for each hired gun. Most security contractors, like Blackwater's teams, live a comfortable if exhausting existence in Baghdad, staying at the Sheraton or Palestine hotels, which are not plush but at least have running water. Locals often mistake the guards for special forces or CIA personnel, which makes active-duty military troops a bit edgy. "Those Blackwater guys," says an intelligence officer in Iraq, "they drive around wearing Oakley sunglasses and pointing their guns out of car windows. They have pointed their guns at me, and it pissed me off. Imagine what a guy in Fallujah thinks." Adds an Army officer who just returned from Baghdad, "They are a subculture."
Indeed, the relationship between the private soldiers and the real ones isn't always collaborative. "We've responded to the military at least half a dozen times, but not once have they responded to our emergencies," says Custer. "We have our own quick-reaction force now."
Let's make it clear -- our regular armed forces don't like the mercs. That's why no one responds to mercs in distress (like the four in Falluja).
Our men and women in uniform deserve all the support we can muster. They are myred in an impossible situation by a government that doesn't know what it's doing. They are doing the best they can. The mercs, on the other hand, choose to be in theater "looking for good money and the taste of danger".
(Thanks to El Payo.)
Update: From the Scotsman:
"Having soldiers here is one thing - you know who they are, why they’re here, and if you talk to them politely they’ll usually talk back," said Amir al Nasiri, a taxi driver. "But these guys - they just drive around with their wraparound shades, sleeveless T-shirts and big guns thinking they’re Rambo and acting like they own the place. I don’t mind the Americans being here, but I wish they hadn’t invited their friends."
Not "hearts and minds" sort of people.