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Wherever you stood on the wiseness of the Iraq war, committing war crimes in it, in this case massacring 17 unarmed civilians, is not some kind of #bothsides issue.
Whether from a human rights perspective or just a cold desire to win the war, it was inarguably wrong + stupid
Whether from a human rights perspective or just a cold desire to win the war, it was inarguably wrong + stupid
It is inarguable that US military repeatedly was angered by how contractor force and Blackwater in particular was undermining its COIN efforts https://www.brookings.edu/research/cant-win-with-em-cant-go-to-war-without-em-private-military-contractors-and-counterinsurgency/
And let's be clear, it went well beyond Nissor Square massacre, ranging from how Blackwater ill-planning+cutting corners led to Fallujah to a drunken Blackwater shooting dead the security guard of the Iraqi Vice President on Christmas Eve, 2006.
If you need a trip back memory lane on this issue, or want to learn more, I'd urge you to read this report. It was my final, frustrated effort at summing up what I had seen and learned on the topic after over a decade of working on it: https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/0927militarycontractors.pdf
(It also included this personal gem about what happens when you try to work honestly on the private military topic in particular).
So let's not, yet again, #bothsides Trump rewarding those who did clear wrong, while harming our national security and the military in particular.
It is lazy narrative,
factually incorrect,
a disservice to anyone who worked this topic,
and, most of all, insulting to the dead
It is lazy narrative,
factually incorrect,
a disservice to anyone who worked this topic,
and, most of all, insulting to the dead
