Iraq’s private war

A Washington Post report (16/6/2007) throws more light on what it calls a “parallel war” with private companies fighting it out with Iraqis.
“Private security companies, funded by billions of dollars in U.S. military and State Department contracts, are fighting insurgents on a widening scale in Iraq, enduring daily attacks, returning fire and taking hundreds of casualties that have been underreported and sometimes concealed, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials and company representatives.”
So the reality in substantially worse than we have imagined with a privatised which presumably recognises no international law of conduct, has no logistical source, is being conducted in conditions of strict secrecy. The source of funding is massive government contracts so the tax payer pays. Shareholders on the other hand will be dancing in the streets as the dividends swell their bank accounts.International capitalism shows that it has no bounds, no moral underpinning and is totally out of control. The problem is many of its backers claim a religious conviction telling them that God has told them this is their mission. Neither Judaism or Christianity are done any favours by these evil acts, not is Islam served by the blatant disregard of human life by the latest actions of Hamas. One thing Fateh has going for it is that it is a secular organisation.


Yasser Arafat spoke to us both Islamic and Christian values while heading a secular movement. He said he wanted to see the Church of the Nativity, desecrated during a siege, restored as a matter of urgency. I got the sense that this was an important matter to him rather than him seeking to make a political gesture. Israel and the western government’s complicity in undermining him seems now a great tragedy for all who live in the region, and indeed for those further afield who are affected by the political repercussions.

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