By Matthew Bisanz
When the recent Blackwater Security controversy came to light, my first thought was: “those guys are probably already on a plane to America.” It is interesting that if someone commits a crime against the U.S., we will go to all imaginable lengths to capture that person. For instance, in 1989 we actually invaded and conquered the entire country of Panama to capture a single drug lord. In theory, we invaded Iraq to capture the singularly evil Saddam Hussein. In the case of Manuel Noriega, we tried him in an American court, with an American jury, even though he never physically committed a crime on American soil. In Iraq, we were so concerned with security that we maintained custody of Hussein until the day of his execution.
However, if an American commits a crime abroad, we make every effort to ensure that they are never brought to justice. A Blackwater contractor got drunk and killed an Iraqi civilian. In my mind, he should’ve been tossed in the same overcrowded jails that al-Qaida and the insurgents are kept in. Their crimes are, broadly speaking, attempting to kill, or successfully killing American soldiers. However, within a day, we had put this contractor on a plane bound for the U.S. Now I haven’t researched what happened after this contractor arrived home, but I can predict, with near certainty, that there was no murder trial as a result of his actions.
In another case, a Blackwater convoy committed 18 hit-and-run accidents on a single trip, with the alleged reason that they were ordered to drive negligently. That’s right, they weren’t defending themselves, protecting American lives, or even acting with caution; they were purposely being negligent for the fun of it. If someone owning a Hummer one day decided that Honda Civics no longer had the right to use the road, they’d be shot by the police before reaching double-digit attacks.
Quite frankly, I am appalled that, on one hand, we preach the need to prosecute this war on terror on every front, arresting children, the aged, and the uninvolved, in the name of protecting global peace. On the other hand, when an American is accused of disrupting the peace, we are more than willing to bend the rules.
Even our own soldiers are held to higher standards when abroad than these contractors are. If members of the Armed Services commit a crime, they are tried according to the Uniform Code of Justice. Given that we need more people to enlist, it seems counterproductive to give non-military personnel more protection than military personnel receive. Even more audacious is that these civilian contractors are paid many times what American soldiers make, even though American soldiers are specifically trained to defend our nation.
This sort of hypocrisy does not occur only in Iraq, of course. A couple of years back, Duane “Dog” X went into Mexico, captured an escaped felon, and brought him back to America, without ever bothering to inform the Mexican government or get permission. I’m fairly certain that if a Russian bounty hunter captured a Cheycan criminal in America and took the criminal out of the country without Washington’s approval, there would be talk of war if the Russian bounty hunter was not turned over to Washington. However, Dog’s “punishment” was getting a hit television show. He lives on an island, so it’s not that the federal government couldn’t find Dog and turn him over to the federalies; it’s that they chose not to.
If we want to be taken seriously in the world, we must hold our own citizens to the same standards we hold other nations to. We should try these Blackwater contractors the same as we would any common criminals. We should seize Blackwater’s assets the same as we would a cartel’s bank accounts. Only then can we say we are fully prosecuting the war on terror.
Matt Bisanz is a graduate student. You may e-mail him at [email protected].