What does Republican "free market" economic theory tell you about the potential problems with a private army?
Well, for one thing, mercenaries make the most money when there's a war on. A national army, of course, has all sorts of incentives to end wars (though some would argue they've got their own reasons to start them). Mercenaries, though, have good reason to prolong wars, and maybe even to see to it that the "enemy" remains capable of conducting operations. Otherwise, the mercenary army's services aren't as necessary or valuable.
For another, the mercenaries working in Iraq don't share our national Armed Forces' mission of creating and supporting a stable post-Saddam government. Witness the December 2006 jailbreak of Ayham al-Samaraie, the former Iraqi electricity minister convicted on corruption charges in late 2006 and imprisoned by the Iraqi government. Awaiting sentencing on his conviction for embezzling $2.5 billion, al-Samaraie hired Blackwater to break him out. He's now living in exile. In Chicago.
So naturally, anyone with a lick of sense would instantly see the necessity for close oversight of a mercenary operation like this one. (Leave it to Rep. Patrick McHenry to lack that much sense, and Chris Shays to say they were "perfect.") And therefore it should surprise no one that the Bush "administration" has less than no interest in seeing such oversight take place. So much less, in fact, that they've actively stonewalled it all along, even when the "oversight" was being conducted by a Republican Congress.
Via Raw Story we learn about this 2005 Los Angeles Times coverage of the strange case of former Defense Department Inspector General Joseph Schmitz:
The Pentagon's top investigator has resigned amid accusations that he stonewalled inquiries into senior Bush administration officials suspected of wrongdoing.
[...]
The resignation comes after Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) sent Schmitz several letters this summer informing him that he was the focus of a congressional inquiry into whether he had blocked two criminal investigations last year.
Grassley, chairman of the Finance Committee, accused Schmitz of fabricating an official Pentagon news release, planning an expensive junket to Germany and hiding information from Congress. Schmitz is the senior Pentagon official charged with investigating waste, fraud and abuse.
And what became of Schmitz?
Defense Department Inspector General Joseph E. Schmitz told staffers this week that he intended to resign as of Sept. 9 [2005] to take a job with the parent company of Blackwater USA, a defense contractor.
Todday, Schmitz is Blackwater's Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel. Yes, after using his position as Inspector General to stonewall investigations into Pentagon contracting practices.
Also via Raw Story's article, do check out this Salon piece detailing the deep-running connections between the Bush "administration" and the Blackwater corporate structure, and the question of just how and why the DoD Inspector General would be so interested in covering for them -- and find himself so much at home there after doing so.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Congress, a remedy for at least some of this insanity comes in the form of H.R. 928, the "Improving Government Accountability Act" (co-sponsored by Chris "Blackwater is Perfect" Shays). It establishes Inspectors General as more independent actors, granting them 7 year renewable terms (from which they can only be dismissed for cause), independent budgetary authority, etc., freeing them (to the extent possible) from the grip of the "unitary executive."
True to form, just as the Blackwater hearings get underway and H.R. 928 is scheduled to hit the House floor, comes word from the White House of George W. Bush's 36th veto threat of the session.
Yep, H.R. 928.
Surprise, surprise.