Courtesy of The Automatic Earth.
MGM Mickey Rooney and Spencer Tracy in the film Riffraff 1936
Well, that’s great news, isn’t it? Blackwater is back. After a first wave of negative publicity over its involvement in Iraq, a major PR hush-hush campaign led to a series of mergers, takeovers and name changes; first, in 2009, it became Xe Services, only to turn into Academi in 2011. What a brilliant moniker for a bunch of modern day mercenaries that is. Who would expect a ruthless killing machine behind a name like that?
Russia quite matter of factly mentioned that it doesn’t appreciate the presence of 150 mercenaries from Academi affiliate Greystone in Ukraine, wearing, no less, Ukrainian special task police uniforms, where the soldiers of fortune are apparently being deployed, by US/EU/Ukraine, to stifle the protests in eastern cities like Donetsk and Kharkiv. Does make you wonder if the US would be just as matter of factly if a heavily armed Navy Seal style Russian or Chinese private army were active in Mexico or Canada.
The Russians are very aware of what Blackwater did in Iraq and Afghanistan, far more so than we as the public are. And even we, with the limited information we got, didn’t like what we saw one bit. Of course Blackwater wasn’t the only private contractor the US paid vast amounts of money to operate with impunity in Iraq and Afghanistan. It merely turned into the symbol of everything that’s wrong with hiring private entities to do, again: with impunity, that part of an army’s work that’s too dirty to live up to daylight exposure.
This next chapter in the sordid tale of one of the frighteningly deep black crevices in recent American history comes just as the US Congress declassified a report on what the perpetrators label ‘enhanced interrogation’ and everybody else says is called torture. And that brings back to mind the whole story of the “job well done” in Iraq by Halliburton, the company with such strong links to Dick Cheney, and it brings back Cheney and Rumsfeld to the forefront of news media, albeit only for a day or so, after which they can go back to bragging at private cocktail and hunting parties about their achievements in public service. Where’s Parkinson when you need him?
Mind you, both of these career psychopaths had some 50 years to refine their warped notions of what the nation should stand for while riding the revolving door train known as Capitol Hill. And when they finally got to step up to the big jobs, they weren’t going to be held back by such ideas as the ones they themselves were the first to loudly proclaim in front of every camera they could find: promoting democracy, freeing foreign nations from dictators, and bringing prosperity to the whole world. No, Rummy and Cheney had bigger things on their mind: there were huge power games to be played, and these came with a great bonus: you got to kill and torture people, and if you played your cards well, be praised for it.
Jon Stewart summarized it very eloquently last night: America has a history of doing a tremendous amount of things ‘we don’t do’. But America does do these things, and when a neutral observer gets to write the history books, the picture that emerges will be very different from the one the nation itself likes to propagate. And things don’t seem to get any better, either. While elite Special Ops forces were deployed in some 60 countries when Rummy and Cheney were still in charge, today that number has risen to 134. And that’s without the likes of Blackwater being added to the tally. Of which, incidentally, in its present Academi shape, Rummy/Cheney chum John Ashcroft, the Attorney General who forced his people into elaborate morning prayer sessions every day, is a key board member.
Here’s what Russian press agency ITAR-TASS said this morning:
Russia Urges Ukraine To Halt Military Preparations To Avert Civil War
The Russian Foreign Ministry urged Ukraine to halt any interior military preparations, which could instigate a civil war in the country, the ministry was quoted as saying on its Facebook.com account.
According to numerous reports, Ukraine is redeploying special task police units from all over the country to the southeastern regions of Ukraine in a bid to thwart anti-government protests, which flared up over the weekend. “According to our information, units of the Interior troops and Ukraine’s national guards as well as militants from the illegal armed formation ‘The Right Sector’ are being amassed in the southeastern parts of Ukraine and in the city of Donetsk,” the ministry said.
“We are particularly concerned that the operation involves some 150 American mercenaries from a private company Greystone Ltd., dressed in the uniform of the [Ukrainian] special task police unit Sokol,” the ministry said. “Organizers and participants of such incitement are assuming a huge responsibility for threatening upon the rights, freedoms and lives of Ukrainian citizens as well as the stability of Ukraine,” the ministry added.
Ukraine makes no effort to try and deny Blackwater’s presence. Which points to the country’s conviction, along with the US and EU, that the portrayal of Putin and all Russians as blood thirsty land hungry bogeymen is working in the west:
Ukrainian parliament-appointed Interior Minister Arsen Avakov confirmed late on Monday night that special task police units have been redeployed to the southern and eastern parts of the country from other regions of Ukraine. “These special task units are ready to solve immediate tasks without paying attention to local peculiarities,” Avakov said. “I call on all hotheads to refrain from criticism and panic sentiments and help the police to take the situation under control.”
As for why the western “coalition” has deemed in necessary to engage Blackwater troops, the answer is the Ukrainian army and police force refuse to do the bidding of the new Kiev government under “Yats”:
The current situation particularly in the city of Kharkiv remained tense, but under control, Avakov said, adding that the majority of policemen failed to comply with their duties. “I had an opportunity today to evaluate the police work in Kharkiv and have to admit that the majority of the Interior Ministry’s law enforcers failed to appropriately fulfil their duties,” he said adding that the personnel reshuffle would follow.
A government that doesn’t have the support of either its army or its police force. That’s never a good sign. Moreover, a fight broke out in the Ukraine parliament today when communist MP Petro Symonenko accused the sitting government, and the right wing Svoboda party in particular, of instigating fights with, intimidating and arresting peaceful protesters. Good thing “Yats” brought in Blackwater when he did, right?
Americans really need to ask themselves if they want Blackwater/Academi to represent them around the world, in the same spirit the Cheney/Rummy/Halliburton interests did. When you ponder these things, it becomes hilariously ridiculous to claim that America stands for promoting democracy, or human rights, or any of the lofty goals people like to associate with the country, and the Constitution it was founded upon. It may not be too late yet to get that spirit back, but it’s certainly getting late.
