The Shifting of Terrorism

The war on terror has come full circle. The US was once liberators and now we are the terrorists.

Last Sunday, a convoy of hired Blackwater USA security forces escorting State Department vehicles open fired on a crowd of innocent Iraqis in an open square. The first person they shot was a man in a car, the second was the woman next to him, holding a baby. When the incident was over, somewhere from eight to eleven Iraqis were killed.

The Iraqi government recently released a preliminary report about these events, stating that “the murder of citizens in cold blood in the Nisour area by Blackwater is considered a terrorist action against civilians just like any other terrorist operation."

This statement sums up the US's involvement in Iraqi, military or private. Before, even if it was under false pretenses, the US claimed it was trying to spread freedom and democracy. Now, it seems, we are just adding to the terror we came to stop.

According to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, there have been seven incidents of Blackwater needlessly killing Iraqis. Blackwater claims that the convoy they were guarding was ambused, and no press releases or acknowledgment of the issues appears on their web page. The only thing that appears is their denial that employees have been illegally smuggling weapons into Iraq that end up on the black market.

Even before the shootings last Sunday, Iraqi officials repeatedly complained to the US about the problems with Blackwater. After the incident, the Iraqi government banned Blackwater operations. Prime Minister al-Maliki even insisted that the state department drop them as a contractor. But they continued their work anyways. Apparently, private security firms are protected in a loophole law that was set up before the Iraqis took power.

The arrogance of Blackwater's continuation is incredibly frustrating. The US is over in Iraq to stop terrorism, yet we are perpetuating it ourselves. Blackwater has denied all wrongdoings, and the US government has made no moves to evaluate the situation. This situation shows how much we don't care about the Iraqi citizens and just how concerned we are with our own agenda. This isn't the war on terror, and it never has been. Soon, both the American people and the Iraqi people are going to completely realize the falsity of this war and everyone will be in a huge amount of trouble. It seems like it is already to late to do anything about it.