Iraq tells Blackwater mercenaries to pack their bags and go home...but they say no to their hosts.

    The decision of the Iraq government to expulse Blackwater mercenaries--following a confusing shoot-out with alleged insurgent forces during which ten civilians were killed and 13 wounded--reveals yet another sordid aspect of the U.S. war against Iraq.

   (The apparently hard-fisted measure lasted a wink and a half, long enough for foreign correspondents to spot the private soldiers on their usual routines.)

     However, the government's Interior Ministry spokesman, Brig. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf, appeared to show no ambiguity when he declared on September 17: "We have revoked Blackwater's license to operate in Iraq. As of now they are not allowed to operate anywhere in the Republic of Iraq. The investigation is ongoing, and all those responsible for Sunday's killings will be referred to Iraqui justice." (According to CNN)

        Blackwater is yet one of several companies providing "security services" for U.S. diplomats, businessmen and others. Once only one of more than a hundred such private military firms operating in Iraq--according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

      On March 31, 2004, four Americans were ambushed and burned near their jeeps by an angry mob in the Sunni stronghold of Falluja. Their charred corpses were hung from a bridge over the Euphrates River. There ensued a bloody counterattack by U.S. troops which gave fuel to the fierce Iraqi resistance that haunts occupation forces to this day. But the four men killed were neither American military nor civilians. They were highly trained private soldiers sent to Iraq by a secretive mercenary company based in the wilderness of North Carolina.   

    Suggestively, Blackwater was founded by Erik Prince, a well-to-do Republican, former Navy officer and board member of the fundamentalist Christian Freedom International. Jeremy Scahill,  a Polk Award-winning investigative journalist who has recently published a book called Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, says: "With its own military base, a fleet of twenty aircraft, and twenty-thousand troops at the ready, Blackwater is the elite Praetorian Guard for the "global war on terror"--yet most people have never heard of it."

       Joseph Wilson, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, has asserted in a comment on Scahill's book that the writer's  "expose of the Blackwater mercenary firm forcefully demonstrates the grave dangers of outsourcing the government's monopoly on the use of force."

     The private armies recruit former militarymen from around the world, paying them salaries much greater than those received by the conventional occupation forces. The number of "private soldiers" operating in the country has been steadily increasing, although there are  few reliable figures available concerning their precise activities.

     According to the August 11, 2006 edition of "The Nation" private mercenaries operate in 27 countries around the world in contracts signed to protect U.S. officials, diplomats and businessmen.

     The fact that the government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki--which owes its existence to the U.S. invasion of Iraq--should order Blackwater to leave the country reveals the extent of contradictions surrounding the unending war against Iraq.

     Although Bagdad has been perfectly aware of the existence of private armies in the country, the incident on Monday and the government's rapid fire response would appear to suggest an up-scaling of the politically explosive presence of private soldiers in the country. 

     In apparent response to Democratic Party critics in Washington, the Bush Administration has been pressuring Maliki to carry out promised reforms the U.S. considers essential to stabalize the violence in the country. At the same time, Maliki has been walking on shaky political grounds and needs to gain popular support.

     Bagdad's demand that Blackwater's troops leave the country, raises some disconcerting questions concerning the role of  private armies in the country. How many incidents involving their activities have been pushed under the carpet? What connections, if any, do they maintain with conventional forces or with intelligence agencies such as the CIA?

    Will the expulsion of Blackwater be used as an excuse to send more U.S. troops to Iraq? What might happen should the U.S. aligned regime in Bagdad suddenly up the ante and ask U.S. conventional forces to leave the country? In the case of a U.S. withdrawal, would the private armies also be sent back home or would their number greatly increase?

           For more on his book reader may visit http://www.blackwaterbook.com