I am a big fan of filmmaker Kevin Smith. When Dogma came out, he went to protest his own film. Here it is.

And, here he is talking about it.

As far back as 2005, U.S. officers in Iraq such as Col. Hammes were worried that while contractors may have been fulfilling their contract, they were also “making enemies each time they went out.” U.S. Army Col. Peter Mansoor, one of the leading experts on counterinsurgency, similarly noted in January 2007, that “if they push traffic off the roads or if they shoot up a car that looks suspicious, whatever it may be, they may be operating within their contract — to the detriment of the mission, which is to bring the people over to your side. I would much rather see basically all armed entities in a counter-insurgency operation fall under a military chain of command.”

The formula for failure isn’t hard to calculate. An Iraqi is driving in Baghdad, on his way to work. A convoy of black-tinted SUVs comes down the highway at him, driving in his lane, but in the wrong direction. They are honking their horns at the oncoming traffic and firing machine gun bursts into the road, in front of any vehicle that gets too close. The Iraqi veers to the side of the road. As the SUVs drive by, Western-looking men in sunglasses point machine guns at him. Over the course of the day, that Iraqi civilian might tell X people about how “the Americans almost killed me today, and all I was doing was trying to get to work.” Y is the number of other people that convoy ran off the road on its run that day. Z is the number of convoys in Iraq that day. Multiply X times Y times Z times 365, and you have the mathematical equation of how to lose a counterinsurgency within a year.

Salon.com News | The dark truth about Blackwater by P.W. Singer

This article is the most thorough and most compelling dissection of the problems presented by Blackwater and other mercenary contractors in Iraq. You owe it to yourself and our fellow citizens in the armed services to read it.

It is in places like this that the US should bring pressure. There, you have a populous willing to suffer for their democracy. But, we’ve engage all of our resources in Iraq.

I hate micro-management as much as the next guy. But in a time of war, the President owes it to himself, the troops and the American people, to know well and aggressively enforce the laws which govern our defense contractors in any theater of war. Not sure this is an important issue? Did you know that private contractors constitute the second-largest “force” in Iraq?

Forget logistics and legalities for a moment. Is this really how we want to be known around the world? Are we a nation who pays mercenaries to fight wars in which our own citizenry has no faith? If we believe that a conflict is fair and just, we should be willing, as a nation, to make sacrifices and pay the true costs. Hiring mercenaries is not the answer.

Should neccesity force the hire of Blackwater or other military contracters, the Commander-in-chief better damn well know and be willing to enforce the laws which govern them. If he is unwilling to do so, he should be unable to hire them in the first place. But then, that assumes Bush and his ilk really care about the United States to begin with.

Appearing on the Today show to promote tomorrow’s release of Magic, Bruce Springsteen took the opportunity to comment on the corrupt, failed policies of the Bush/Cheney administration. More proof that Springsteen is a true spokesman for working class America. Thanks to Crooks and Liars for making the clip available.