Think back to 2007 - remember when that private military company Blackwater Worldwide killed 17 Iraqi civilians when its employees opened fire on a crowded street? Yeah, well, Iraq’s government certainly remembers it, and has denied the firm an operating license to work in the country. Blackwater had been operating without a license for some time, and apparently applied for one only recently. And Iraq’s government, in a bold move, decided that though the private security firm protects American diplomats in the nation, maybe they should find other countries in which to fight wars. From the New York Times:

‘They presented their request, and we rejected it,’ said Ala’a Al-Taia, an official with Iraq’s Interior Ministry. There are many marks against this company, specifically that they have a bad history and have been involved in the killing of so many civilians.’

Those seem like pretty good reasons, in my opinion, which counts for nothing. So what does this mean for Blackwater’s future in Iraq? It means that there isn’t one. From the Washington Post, who broke the story:

Blackwater employees who have not been accused of improper conduct will be allowed to continue working as private security contractors in Iraq if they switch employers, Iraqi officials said Wednesday. The officials said Blackwater must leave the country as soon as a joint Iraqi-U.S. committee finishes drawing up guidelines for private contractors under the security agreement. It is unclear how long that will take. Blackwater employees and other U.S. contractors had been immune from prosecution under Iraqi law.

Interestingly enough, Iraq revoked Blackwater’s license in 2007, but that decision was ignored by both Blackwater and the United States, because who does Iraq think it is that it can create its own laws? In the past nine years, the government has paid Blackwater over a billion dollars, by the way (all these facts are being poached from the Post article, for citation’s sake).

I subscribe to the general notion that if you can’t fight a war with your own military, you probably shouldn’t be fighting wars, but that’s certainly a notion that’s been ignored as long as wars have been fought. However, I’m under the specific notion that Blackwater shouldn’t exist, at all. Now, that’s easy for me to say, here in my apartment far from any real danger or tough decision-making concerning the waging of war, but I’m uncomfortable with very real possibility that Blackwater, or a company like it, can be hired to, say, overturn a democratically elected government somewhere.

For a great look at the privatization of military operations around the world, I highly suggest you takepart and read P.W. Singer’s 2003 book Corporate Warriors. It was the first book to discuss private warfare, and is indispensable in the study of how firms like Blackwater operate.