Gold-Plated Rambos

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/02/AR2007100200531.html

Gold-Plated Rambos

By Patrick B. Pexton
Tuesday, October 2, 2007; 7:44 AM

Every day, President Bush trusts his life to U.S. government employees. At the White House, Secret Service agents and U.S. Marines protect him around the clock. Wherever he travels, he takes Secret Service with him. He uses Marine helicopters for short trips and Air Force aircraft for longer ones. And, for his medical care, there are Navy doctors on call.

Most U.S. diplomats, too, put their safety in the hands of people paid directly by Uncle Sam. Scores of American embassies and consulates around the world are patrolled by a joint force of civilian diplomatic security agents and fully armed units of U.S. Marines.

All of these security personnel, whether civil servants or uniformed military, are highly trained. And, by most all accounts, they do an exemplary job. They are swift and sure when force is necessary. They are also sensitive to civilians, whether confronting a line of impatient visa seekers or in the course of guarding the commander in chief. And, if there are any problems, they are accountable to a clear chain of command.

Yet, despite this solid reputation, they're mostly absent from Iraq. Instead, the top American diplomats there have relied on the hired guns of the increasingly swampy North Carolina private-security firm Blackwater USA. Since 2003, the State Department has paid Blackwater upwards of $832 million for security in Iraq. Today, Blackwater Chairman Erik Prince and three State Department officials are scheduled to appear before Congress to explain what that money paid for. The short answer? Gold-plated Rambos that are a slight to the U.S. government's in-house security personnel and a hindrance to U.S. policy goals.

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