Blackwater Backwash

Our Blackwater mercenaries in Iraq symbolize the black heart of The Decider's sinister Iraq adventure.

Blackwater, in carrying out their almost $1 billion in U.S. contracts to complement our troops, doesn't answer to the military, the laws of Iraq or even the United States. They don't care about winning hearts and minds. Their desperado recklessness reflects the reckless policies of this administration's pay-any-price occupation of Iraq.

And, Iraqis are mad. In the latest outrage, Blackwater guards killed as many as 17 people and wounded 24 two weeks ago in Baghdad in a take no prisoners rampage .... many charge it is par for the course for these "shoot now, ask questions later" mercenaries.

Contractors in Iraq employed by the Defense Department to perform functions once carried out by the U.S. military according to April 2007 congressional testimony is 127,000.... "Contractors in Iraq Have Become U.S. Crutch."

Labor Department figures show that 1001 civilian contractors had died in Iraq as of June 30, 2007. Deaths not included in the widely published Iraq fatality figures. Many thousands more have been wounded.

And, contrary to the recent defense of Blackwater by the company's chairman, Erik Prince, who told a congressional committee Tuesday that Blackwater guards opened fire on just 195 occasions since 2005, "two former Blackwater security guards said they believed employees fired more often than the company disclosed," with one quoting his 20-man-team averaged "four or five" shootings a week, several times the reported rate. "Guards in Iraq Cite Frequent Shootings" WaPo

Prince was a White House intern under George H.W. and as a Republican financier has made more than $225,000 in political contributions. Federal contracts account for about 90 percent of the revenue of Prince Group holdings of which Blackwater is a subsidiary. Friends of George do very well.

The Decider likes point the finger at the evil ones, the dark face of the extremists, while extolling his "vision" for a better world. But, what the distraught Iraqis see is his distorted reflection in the Blackwater cesspool.