Here’s a question, raised in 1979 by the mellifluous Mighty Diamonds:
Thirty years later, the answer’s clear: The Pentagon, that’s who. At best we’ll get the “rogue security contractor” excuse from the Bush regime for Sunday’s cacophonous killing of 11 Iraqis in Baghdad by the North Carolina mercenary army Blackwater.
That excuse has worked before. As I wrote in July 2004, it was used by the Pentagon after the Abu Ghraib tortures came to light. SecDef Don Rumsfeld blamed “rogue” soldiers.
Our memories are short when it comes to the mercenaries employed by the Bush regime. As I pointed out in August 2004, private “interrogators” from CACI were employed by the Pentagon at Abu Ghraib, where all that “fear up” went down.
After this latest incident of privatized violence, we have Blackwater saying its boys were ambushed. Blackwater has 1,000 “troops” in Iraq and guards Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Yes, they guard Crocker, and the administration guards them. Monday’s Washington Post concisely captured the two versions of the latest Blackwater escapade. Here’s the first:
The subsequent battle killed at least nine people and wounded 14, Iraqi police and hospital workers said. [An Iraqi official] put the death toll at 11.
Followed by the second version:
They wanted to shoot them some Ay-rabs, pal. The way I see it, the Mighty Diamonds sang about the possibility of dreadlocked Rastafarians someday making bodyguards pay the price:
But don’t worry, Blackwater bodyguards, the Bush regime will shelter you. Iraq’s citizens are the ones who can’t hide. As of this morning, IBC’s “documented civilian deaths from violence” totals somewhere between 72,596 and 79,187.
Yes, the Blackwater “incident” was notable. But as the IBC “recent events” list notes, on that same Sunday, many other Iraqis died, and not at the hands of American mercenaries, whom our press continues to euphemistically label “contractors” or “bodyguards.”
One of the victims was a 12-year-old boy who was killed in Diwaniya during a raid by U.S. and Iraqi troops, according to news reports assembled by IBC. Wonder what happened there?
In any case, this particular bloody Sunday was predestined. IBC’s list of 38 people who were killed just the day before includes this entry:
And this one: