Peanuts for a Shadow Army

The U.S. government’s Blackwater ruling comes just in time

There’s a bright outlook for America’s shadow army: Xe Services, the security contractor previously known as Blackwater, may have to pay millions of dollars in fines because of their export violations, but legally the scandal-ridden company is getting off lightly.

And that means the U.S. government can also breathe a sigh of relief. It can continue to award contracts to the company without the necessity of dirtying its own hands. The fact that the controversial security firm based in North Carolina is already answerable for just about anything you could imagine apparently doesn’t faze Washington in the least.

This army belonging to Eric Prince, former Marine and self-styled “Crusader Against Islam,” was originally hired to provide protection for U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq and the Hindu Kush. It grew as its mission expanded to a force of 40,000 mercenaries armed with so many tanks, aircraft and munitions that they could wage their own wars. The team belonging to the rabid heir to billions of dollars, however, owes its success to their cooperative team play with U.S. intelligence. They took on torture interrogations in CIA prisons and equipped the drones used in Pakistan.

Because of a brutal bloodbath they caused in 2007, they were tossed out of Iraq by the Baghdad government. In Hamburg, Blackwater assassins are said to have pursued a German-Syrian al-Qaida contact. Child prostitution, rape, weapons sales — the list of their filthy business dealings has no end.

Yet the U.S. government will use these mercenary forces in the future more than ever before — in Iraq, for example, where U.S. troops will totally withdraw by the end of next year. After the troops leave, a peacekeeping force backed by the U.S. government will be employed to continue the security duties. 2,400 diplomats will be protected by 7,000 mercenaries, who will be more heavily armed than soldiers, with state-of-the-art radar installations, attack helicopters and armored vehicles.

That’s the alternative that can be better sold to the American people: The war is officially over. It’s also the most economical solution; it cost the U.S. taxpayers $100 billion per year to keep troops in Iraq. The switch to mercenaries cuts that expense to just $7 billion. Peanuts, and easily worth the cost of a few export violation penalties.