Blackwater, now known as 'Xe', is a "Private Military Firm". Apparently, the mercenary armies of the centuries gone by have decided to adopt a new name, and Erik Prince's organisation is the foremost example of this trend.
According to the Geneva Convention of 1949, a mercenary is defined as "A person who takes part in an armed conflict, who is not a national or a party to the conflict, and is motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain and, in fact, is promised, by or on behalf of a party to the conflict, material compensation substantially in excess of that promised or paid to combatants of similar ranks and functions in the armed forces of said Party.
Blackwater's staff fulfill every single criterion in the above definition - their salaries are said to be higher than the soldiers that comprise the US Army, and they have no single national identity - they are ethnically diverse, and are citizens of a number of countries, ranging from the Philippines to the USA. Unaffiliated to any single country, they are essentially guns for hire, and very, very powerful guns, at that.
Blackwater started life in 1997, when ex-US Navy SEAL Erik Prince bought 6000 acres of land in North Carolina, for the express purpose of building and operating a training ground for elite warriors.
They were then given a contract by the US Department of Defense to protect US diplomats serving in Iraq. An exact headcount of Blackwater personnel in Iraq is unavailable, but estimates range from 20,000 to 100,000 troops. Their functions then diversified to include protecting supply convoys in the troubled Kurdistan region, providing air-dropped supplies to US soldiers in Afghanistan, and assisting in the management of Hurricane Katrina.
There have since been numerous allegations over the reckless disregard for human life exhibited by the company's forces - from shooting at civilians to firing about a hundred rounds into an unarmed vehicle, just because it was "moving in a suspicious manner".
By all accounts, Blackwater troops appear to be nothing more than a band of trigger-happy mercenaries, with alcohol and drug addictions to boot.
There have been instances in which the US government has been forced to acknowledge the above statement, at least in part. The number of Iraqi civilians killed by Blackwater mercenaries is far too high to be overlooked or justified. The Iraqi government, too, has had enough of the 'shoot first, ask questions later' attitude displayed by the mercenaries in such abundance.
The movie Hitman portrays an organisation like Blackwater - "An organisation which takes no sides, but has ties to every major government. An organisation that specializes in the art of killing without being seen, an organisation which trains and operates professional assassins."
Well, the last part may not apply, but Blackwater is exactly like the Organisation in Hitman. However, instead of moving heaven and earth to seek and destroy such an organisation, today's governments are actually employing them.
Just think of the implications. Until the advent of Blackwater, any military force of reasonable size was accountable to a government, usually democratic. Those armies that did not justify their actions to their people were almost immediately neutralized by organisations like NATO and the UN, like the case of Saddam Hussain or Slobodan Milosevic. Still others, like Muammar Gadaffi, were treated with caution, and their actions were carefully monitored. The underlying principles that defined these 'rogue' armies were sound - they went to war for very few reasons - territorial gain, or for a resource-rich region. In both cases, the identities of the belligerents were clearly defined - shooting a soldier in enemy uniform meant shooting at the enemy's institutions. Even in the case of terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, the definition of friend or foe was extremely clear - in fact, more so than in case of conventional war. This is because the average terrorist is much more motivated to fight for his cause than the average conscript. A terrorist knows where his loyalties lie, and hence, a terrorist is much easier to identify as an enemy.
However, the case is different with mercenaries. Here, you have a sizeable army, under the control of a man or a group of people who have no clear agenda - they are completely unpredictable. Also, they appear accountable to no one - even when it was clear that Blackwater forces had killed innocent civilians, the US government was unable to take any action. Even scarier is the incident in which Blackwater mercenaries shot and killed a member of the Iraqi vice-presidential guard. The employee who fired the shots was whisked out of the country, and currently lives a comfortable life in Seattle, Washington. The US government couldn't do anything about it, and actually assisted in finding him a job for the next few years.
So ask yourselves, what kind of barbarian world do we live in? A world where money can get you your own personal army? A world in which private armies are actually encouraged by governments? For decades, the US has played the role of policeman and peacemaker in trouble spots around the world. True, it has had its share of failures in this area. However, employing Blackwater is tantamount to breaking the 1989 UN Mercenary Convention, which explicitly prohibits the recruitment and financing of mercenaries.
It remains to be seen how the alarmed screams of a few independent citizens helps the US see sense - it is, after all, a task at which several vastly more powerful agencies have singularly failed, with spectacular results.
If Al-Qaeda and 9/11 were the consequences of the US Government's misadventures in the 1980s, one can but wonder what the result of the current one will be.
As a footnote, let me say that Erik Prince has sold Blackwater, and now lives in Abu Dhabi, wallowing in the wealth that is proof of the US Government's stupidity.
bala
