Here’s a multiple choice question:

Who is undermining security in Iraq?

A. Al Qaeda

B. Iran

C. Blackwater

D. All of the above

The chairman of Blackwater, Erik Prince, in defense of his trigger happy “employees” stated that the war zone in which they operate is quote, “very complex.” He’s right about that, and it’s a good reason not to further complicate it by injecting mercenaries and unaccountable soldiers of fortune into the chaos.

A House committee found that in a vast majority of instances where Blackwater was involved, shots were fired pre-emptively and from fast moving vehicles. A picture emerges of sincere efforts by the military to make peace with local civilians while these armed cowboys drive around in SUV’s shooting the place up.

With only 1,000 “security guards,” they seem to make a lot of noise. What are the reasons that a measly 1,000 extra US military personnel can’t be found to provide this security instead? Are Blackwater guards better than US marines? Are these outsourced mercs easier to coordinate and operate in the field? By all accounts the answer is no. In fact, coordinating them with the rest of the US military effort has become so difficult – the government has already outsourced the field coordination to a private company! Yeah, the job of keeping Blackwater and other armed contractors up to date on battlefield intel is now in the hands of a third party contractor.

These guys earn more than 6 times the pay of an ordinary US soldier with tens of millions being paid to Blackwater each month. Apparently all that time working under Bush senior paid off for Erik. Of course he’s also a wealthy right-wing fundamentalist Christian from a powerful Republican family packed full of Bush donors. Erik with a “K”, what a guy. Backwater.

Here’s an idea, stop paying these assholes! And use the money to provide body armor to good old US soldiers. Then use some of the excess money for local Iraqi concerns, fix all the doors we’ve kicked in, pay for a little girl’s funeral (start with tribal leader daughters for good measure). Maybe throw in some bottled water, you know for the cholera epidemic they have now.