Editorial: Where’s the outrage been?

Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2007 | 7:14 a.m.

Since contractors with the private security firm Blackwater USA opened fire in a Baghdad square Sept. 16, killing 17 civilians, the Iraqi government has been unusually diligent.

It has devoted a large amount of time and numerous resources to investigating the incident. It has compiled a voluminous report and is now making multiple demands of U.S. officials.

Among the demands: End Blackwater's contract with the State Department and get the company and all its contractors out of Iraq within six months; order Blackwater to pay $8 million in compensation for each of the 17 victims.

We do not fault the Iraqi government for the time and energy it has invested in researching the killings and in taking what it considers appropriate action.

Blackwater has long had a reputation of operating as if Iraqi and even U.S. laws were irrelevant. Congressional investigators have amassed thousands of documents pertaining to the company's rash and violent actions in Iraq.

As reported this month by the Los Angeles Times, the documents include accounts of Blackwater contractors routinely opening fire in Iraq's streets, plowing their armored trucks into civilian vehicles for no apparent reason, leaving scenes of violence without assisting wounded civilians and frequently being shielded by their employer, the State Department, from prosecution and censure.

Although the Iraqi government's vigilance in pursuing actions against Blackwater is justifiable, it is perplexing why the same amount of vigilance has not been shown in regard to its homegrown violence.

Tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens have been killed by criminals, insurgents and terrorists since U.S. forces removed Saddam Hussein from power in 2003. And the violence between Shiites and Sunnis has led to civil war.

Certainly, the U.S. has alienated many Iraqis with its undisciplined private security forces and incidents such as the Abu Ghraib travesty.

But if the Iraqi government had all along been as engaged in building its own security forces and in negotiating political solutions as it has been recently in its campaign against Blackwater, the country might now be more secure.