Oct. 15, 2007 issue - The colonel was furious. "Can you believe it?
They actually drew their weapons on U.S. soldiers." He was describing a
2006 car accident, in which an SUV full of Blackwater operatives had
crashed into a U.S. Army Humvee on a street in Baghdad's Green Zone.
The colonel, who was involved in a follow-up investigation and spoke on
the condition he not be named, said the Blackwater guards disarmed the
U.S. Army soldiers and made them lie on the ground at gunpoint until
they could disentangle the SUV. His account was confirmed by the head
of another private security company.
I am not suited for being an officer, an NCO, or probably in the military in general for that matter. That is for damn sure because if a group of these assholes did that to men under my command, it would require divine intervention for me to not walk up to the contractor in charge who ordered such a thing to be done, put my sidearm to his temple and blow his brains out. They had no business disarming American soldiers in the middle of a warzone for the sake of their arrogance and convenience. The military ought to take that entire unit from Blackwater and summarily make an example out of them by machine gunning them to death, and throwing their rotting corpses out into the desert to be eaten by wild animals.
I can hardly imagine how this would happen! I have zero doubt that if two military vehicles had collided and one set of MPs did this to the other that heads would have rolled and that group would be lucky to see their court martial.
This story is really hard to believe. The source can't be named, even though he's ID'd as a colonel involved in the investigation. How f'ing hard would it be for the military to find out who it was based on that info alone?
The military would have to be amazingly soft compared to my day if they're taking shit from glorified security guards.
They're not glorified security guards. They're former special forces guys who are notorious for being armed for bear in Iraq. It would be dangerous for any regular army or marine grunt to go up against them when they've already decided to use force against our guys. Not insane, per se, but you have to realize that many of these guys are former SEALS, Rangers and Green Berets.
I know what they are Mike, and I still consider them glorified securtiy guards. They're security guards with a lot more training than normal. At age 20, with an M-16 in a combat zone, we would have had either dead guards or dead soldiers if this really happened. I really think this story is bogus.
I can think of a few good reasons why that is not necessarily true:
1) Blackwater has a reputation for being full of the meanest, baddest ex-special forces guys around.
2) If the Blackwater guys were out and armed first, the soldiers would not have wanted to risk their lives against them.
3) WRT to the colonel, all of these leaks can be traced back at some point. If the government wants to find out who was leaking the information, it is not hard because of how compartmentalized the information is. This is why I always assume that with intelligence agencies, the higher ups are playing politics; there is no way for a low-level contractor or intelligence officer or analyst to get away with leaking important information.
I take it as a higher form of military art to know when to use force and when to let it pass. No one is going to win in a shootout among Americans. The best policy in such events is to cooperate and allow things to de-escalate. No one gets hurt and everyone goes home. There is always a way to get your pound of flesh later if that is what you are all about.
The military ought to take that entire unit from Blackwater and summarily make an example out of them by machine gunning them to death, and throwing their rotting corpses out into the desert to be eaten by wild animals.
Assuming they could even do it, it is illegal for US citizens to murder other people. It would also make recruiting replacements difficult. Who do you think Blackwater is working for? Clue: The same government that employs the US Army.
Recruiting from Blackwater, perhaps, but it would certainly be a good PR stunt for the military on the domestic front. It would help to reverse some of the black eyes it has gotten for being PC about protecting troops. Executing contractors for disarming American soldiers in a dangerous section of occupied territory, without legal cause, would send a clear message: "we don't let people fuck with our soldiers."
Having a few of its rough edges trimmed by the military might also do Blackwater some good as well. I'm all for the argument that species adapt to disruptive stimuli. I think it has merit here. The problem with Blackwater is that our military hasn't said to them that if they are going to behave like cowboys, working outside the rule of law, they had better show judgment commensurate with their high pay, else they might disappear into the desert if they screw with our stabilization plans.
I am curious. What would the Blackwater guys have been charged with if they had just gunned down these soldiers? Bremer said that they are not subject to Iraqi law, and I can't see how they'd be subject to the UCMJ seeing as how they are not in the military. Precisely whose law would they be charged under if they had just opened fire on those soldiers and killed them? I seriously want to know.