Hearing on Private Security Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan
October 2, 2007
Without [private security details] we would not be able to interface with Iraqi government officials, institutions and other Iraqi civilians critical to our mission there.
Every good capitalist knows that any venture worth its salt has a mission statement and a business plan. So, what exactly is the mission of the US State Department in Iraq? And, realistically, are the goals of that mission attainable?
That the US State Department is relying on private contractors, such as Blackwater, to provide security in Iraq gives a pretty good idea as to the answer to the second question.
And that just makes the first question all the more critical.
What is the mission of the US State Department in Iraq?
Statement by the U.S. Embassy on the U.S. Administration's Policy Toward Iraq
September 30, 2007
Our goal in Iraq remains the same: a united, democratic, federal Iraq that can govern, defend, and sustain itself. Iraq's leaders must and will take the lead in determining how to achieve these national aspirations.
Here's the thing. According to the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, that's not really the mission. Here's what Secretary Rice clearly stated back in February.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to U.S. Mission Personnel in Iraq
February 17, 2007
First of all, this is an essential mission for the security and well-being of the United States of America.
It's a bit difficult to read about the importance of security from Secretary Rice knowing that she was the National Security Adviser on 9-11. Only someone intent on committing professional suicide would want to highlight her single greatest professional failure -- a failure that resulted in the deaths of at least 2,819 people.
Continuing with Secretary Rice's address...I recommend you take the time to read this excerpt, long though it is.
I know we talk a great deal about helping the Iraqi people to find their way out of violence, out of tyranny, to democracy and to living together in peace and prosperity. And that's a noble cause, and America has always been at its best when it uses its power for noble causes. But this mission, bringing a stable and secure Iraq, is also essential for the security of the United States of America. Because on September 11th when those 19 men drove our own airplanes into the Pentagon and into the World Trade Center and would have driven it into the Capitol in Washington, we realized that we were no longer isolated from danger and terror, that the great oceans that had protected us for almost 200 years were no barrier to fear and destruction on our own territory, and we recognized at that point that we were going to have to come to the source of the problem, that we were going to have to go on the offense, that no matter how well we tried to defend America with port security and airport security, we couldn't play defense because the terrorists only have to be right once and we have to be right 100 percent of the time.
From the National Security Adviser who failed to take CIA's warnings about Osama bin Laden seriously. Should we trust her judgment on the mission in Iraq?
And that's an unfair fight, and therefore we decided we had to go on the offense. And that meant coming to the source of the problem here in the Middle East and trying nothing more grand than trying to actually bring about a different kind of Middle East.
Of the 19 hijackers: 15 Saudi Arabian, 1 Egyptian, 1 Lebanese and 2 from the United Arab Emirates. Nope. No Iraqis.
And a different kind of Iraq, an Iraq freed of Saddam Hussein, an Iraq freed of the tyranny that was a part of this land for so long, that's the different kind of Iraq that can be a pillar of that different kind of Middle East.
That's known as the domino theory. It failed in Viet Nam.
And so when you get up and go to work every day in what I know are extremely difficult circumstances, when you get up and go to work every day far from family and far from friends, when you get up and go to work every day and perhaps have to mourn the loss of a fallen comrade, I just want you to know that the work that you're doing is noble, but the work that you're doing is also necessary. It's necessary for generations of Americans to be able to live in peace and in security.
And security once again brings us back to Blackwater who provides security details for the US State Department in Iraq.
H.R. 2740
Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA) Expansion and Enforcement Act of 2007
To require accountability for contractors and contract personnel under Federal contracts, and for other purposes.
Recently introduced legislation that's long overdue, it's already been rendered completely meaningless. Why should anyone expect accountability from contractors when we haven't held Condoleezza Rice accountable for the very failures she herself says brought us to Iraq to begin with?
I raised two questions at the beginning:
- What exactly is the mission of the US State Department in Iraq?
- Are the goals of that mission attainable?
As long as those questions remain unanswered, security contractors will continue to operate on offense. Because, like it or not, that's the only clear mission they've been given.