Hessians

Blackwater USA now finds itself under a healthy heap of opprobium, but is this reasonable? Liberals who feel compelled by nationalism and daddy-complex fetishism to Support the Troops™ are pleased to have an opportunity to draw attention to the bloody toll of the war without having to confront the plain fact that "contractors" play an exceedingly minor roll in the carnage. "Employees of Blackwater USA have engaged in nearly 200 shootings in Iraq since 2005," says the Times. Well, how many of the Marines engaged in? Is Blackwater USA piloting the jets that daily bomb civilian infrastructure? It's true that there are many soldiers of fortune in Iraq, and that they're largely unfettered and unaccountable, but here's the interesting addendum: the same is true for the Army! Cool.

There is an effort underway to further deligitamize the American occupation of Iraq without deligitamizing the principle instrument of the policy. Private contractors provide the opportunity to wax and blather about the gross inhumanity of our partial conquest without sullying the Boys, who are, to a man, "performing brilliantly." Whatever that means. That's not to suggest that every soldier is a war criminal. Neither is every mercenary. But to call one criminal and not the other because patriotism crassly demands a distinction is hypocrisy of the worst kind.