Washington PostI am not one to get all ridged and stern, and so am not going to immediately jump on the whole "Puppet Government" parade right now. The fact of the matter is, if they are a government based on the Rule of Law, and if they failed to repeal an order that they left standing in place, then they do not have the authority to just revoke the license of Blackwater USA.
BAGHDAD, Sept. 17 -- The Iraqi government on Monday said it had revoked the license of Blackwater USA, an American security company involved in a shootout in Baghdad that killed at least nine people, raising questions over which nation should regulate tens of thousands of civilian hired guns operating in Iraq.
New York Times
The deaths struck a nerve with Iraqis, who say that private security firms are often quick to shoot and are rarely held responsible for their actions. A law issued by the American authority in Iraq before the United States handed over sovereignty to Iraqis, Order No. 17, gives the companies immunity from Iraqi law. A security expert based in Baghdad said Monday night that the order, issued in 2004, had never been overturned. Like others, he spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter remains under official inquiry.
Now, that doesn't mean I think they should or shouldn't revoke the license. What I am saying is they have a frame work of laws and orders that they have to work with. It sounds as if they didn't do that in this situation, and jumped the gun.
If the Iraqi government manages to somehow overturns Order No. 17, and stand by their decision to revoke Blackwater USA's license to operate in Iraq, well then a whole can of worms opens up for the United States. Because if the United States defies this action by the Iraqi government, it's a flat out admission of Iraq being nothing more than a territory of our Empire.
On top of that, it leaves the military without support services, which then brings into question the idea of contracting out those services to civilian contractors.
If nothing else, it's definitely shown that the whole neo-con idea of war is for the birds.
