The Weekly Weigh-in -- Black Death Edition

So, a few weeks ago your friendly BBPO wrote a post about how the US gov't has harassed and abused whistleblowers in Iraq who dared to speak out against the corruption of numerous government contractors. The post linked to an msnbc story detailing how these courageous people were variously fired, demoted, imprisoned, and interrogated for trying to stop illegal arms sales, reconstruction fraud, and the like. One even spent 97 days in a US military prison in Iraq for speaking out.

Of course, those whistleblowers were Americans. This week we've gotten a clearer picture of what it means to be an Iraqi who gets in the way of an American company.

In an incident last weekend, armed employees of the much loathed security company Blackwater allegedly slaughtered 11 Iraqi civilians without provocation. And as for that "allegedly" -- did it really happen like that? Or were the dead Iraqis insurgents, as Blackwater claims? Well, given the reports, the answer to that first question, unfortunately, is "probably." Word today from the Iraqi authorities is that they have a videotape proving that the Blackwater guards fired first, and I doubt very much that anything will emerge to show that said authorities can't tell the difference between a bunch of dead insurgents and 11 unarmed civilians.

In any case, the incident has brought further reporting that Blackwater employees have a wide reputation for terrorizing the civilian populace. An excellent, if stomach-turning, piece by Michael Hirsh even describes an incident in which a Blackwater employee got drunk and "boasted to his friends that he was going to kill someone " before stumbling away and doing just that.

What is most disturbing of all, however, is not that certain despicable people have committed despicable acts in this war zone -- history records enough atrocities that this should not surprise us -- but that the Bush administration is so complicit in these crimes by dint of the protections it affords to the criminals. By the laws, so-called, that the administration has created in Iraq and foisted upon the Iraqi gov't and civilians, it has given these private contractor paramilitaries immunity, apparently, from any form of criminal prosecution. If a Blackwater employee murders an Iraqi, the Iraqis are powerless to punish him, and the US cannot prosecute him under the rules that govern the regular American military. Is it any wonder, then, that some of these armed-to-the-teeth paramilitaries would commit murder, knowing that they will never face any consequences? And is it any wonder, by the way, as Hirsh notes in his article, that the US effort to "win the hearts and minds" of the Iraqi populace hasn't been working out so great? When Blackwater guards are the ones protecting the State department diplomats charged with that mission, I gotta say, no, it isn't any wonder at all.

So yeah, the Bush administration, for all its lofty rhetoric, protects cold-blooded murderers working for the US gov't in Iraq. Meanwhile, back in America, Bush has recently vowed that he will veto a bill to provide health coverage to millions of uninsured children.