Iraqis Want Mercs, Not U.S. Troops, To Stick Around
It’s not that the Iraqi government has suddenly grown to love private security contractors. It’s just, from the perspective of Iraq’s politics, at least the hired guns aren’t U.S. troops.
Savor the irony here. After private security guards working for Blackwater killed 17 Iraqi civilians at Baghdad’s Nisour Square in 2007, Maliki led the charge to denounce the contractors. “There is a sense of tension and anger among all Iraqis, including the government, over this crime,” Maliki said back then. Obviously there’s a big difference between security contractors who’d familiarize Iraqis with the avionics on an F-16 and diplomatic guards who shot up a crowded traffic circle. But the Iraqis weren’t drawing such distinctions when tempers flared in 2007.