OK, Mr. Honky Mo-Fo, take your best shot!

So, apparently there are signs all over the world that there is a global recession coming. I've found no confident predictions as to its length and depth, but the Federal Reserve just cut the interest rate by a half-percent to 4.75%, and that's the first cut it's made in four years. So, now's the time to start stuffing those mattresses. Nah, I'm just joshing. Coffee cans are a better idea.

You may not be aware that the U.S. military does not actually take care of all of our security interests in Iraq. The smelly infestation of contractors that swarms all over our tax dollars (I may end up working for one of them someday, in which case, I will not retract that comment) extends into Iraqi security. One of the most significant of these contractors is Blackwater, USA, founded, run, and staffed by the kind of guys that always reminds me of an old Robin Williams movie, The Survivors. Basically, they are crazy mercenaries like the guy pictured at right.

So anyway, Blackwater's main duty in-country involves moving high-profile targets (diplomats, local politicians) from Point A through dangerous territory to Point B. So it happens that, during one of these Crazy-Taxi-esque runs, the convoy gets ambushed and a shootout ensues. Blackwater's helicopters (helicopters!) arrive to support, and some people that pretty much everyone involved agrees are civilians (damn insurgent conflicts, it's so hard to tell sometimes) are shot and killed in the crossfire.

And lo, the nascent Iraqi government decides to flex its new muscles. "Blackwater must go!" It cries (in Arabic, probably).

Now, the numbers I've got show that there's around 30,000 contract security employees in Iraq, and Blackwater accounts for about 1,500 of them. That's not a terribly significant loss by the numbers, but the significance of firing them over something like this is much greater. It would almost certainly lead to a spike in attacks on contractors, in an attempt to provoke more unfortunate accidents and subsequent sackings. If they could decrease the overall U.S. presence in-country by 30,000, or even just force the U.S. to fill those numbers in with uniformed troops, it would be quite the setback.

So, to summarize, the Iraqi government and the Pentagon have a conflict of interests.

Or rather, had. Today it was announced that Blackwater will be allowed to stay and do what it was doing, but all of its operations must be approved beforehand (by whom isn't clear). What a completely meaningless slap on the wrist. Nobody wouldn't have approved the operation that started this whole mess anyway. To know whether the contractors were really at fault requires having seen the incident firsthand, but it's not important whether their expulsion was just or not. What's important is that the Iraqi government just attempted to make a decision and was promptly emasculated by the Americans.

While that's probably where this story will end (unless Blackwater or another security company does something outrageous, like rape a child), the Iraqi Interior Ministry is drawing up legislation that will allow them to prosecute any contractors who fail to adhere to certain "guidelines". We'll see how far that goes.