Only 32 percent of Iraqis called medical care adequate compared to 62 percent in 2005. Satisfaction with schools fell to 51 percent from 74 percent in 2005. Satisfaction with family economic situations also was down to 37 percent from 70 percent two years ago.
Blackwater Mercenaries
Little wonder that the unpopular Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has sought to make an issue over the trigger-happy tendencies of Blackwater mercenaries who provide security for U.S. embassy personnel and other American VIPs.
On Sept. 16, Blackwater gunmen accompanying a U.S. diplomatic convoy apparently sensed an ambush and opened fire, spraying a Baghdad square with bullets. Eyewitness accounts indicated that the Blackwater team apparently overreacted to a car, containing a husband and a wife and their child, moving into the square and killed at least 11 people, including the family in the car.
"Blackwater has no respect for the Iraqi people," an Iraqi Interior Ministry official told the Washington Post. "They consider Iraqis like animals, although actually I think they may have more respect for animals." [Washington Post, Sept. 20, 2007]
Iraqis have objected to other disregard of innocent life by American troops, such as the killing of two dozen Iraqis in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005, after one Marine died from an improvised explosive device.
According to published accounts of U.S. military investigations, the dead Marine's comrades retaliated by pulling five men from a cab and shooting them, and entering two homes where civilians, including women and children, were slaughtered.
The Marines then tried to cover up the killings by claiming that the civilian deaths were caused by the original explosion or a subsequent firefight, according to investigations by the U.S. military and human rights groups.
One of the accused Marines, Sgt. Frank Wuterich, gave his account of the Haditha killings in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes," including an admission that his squad tossed a grenade into one of the residences without knowing who was inside.
"Frank, help me understand," asked interviewer Scott Pelley. "You're in a residence, how do you crack a door open and roll a grenade into a room?"
"At that point, you can't hesitate to make a decision," Wuterich answered. "Hesitation equals being killed, either yourself or your men."
"But when you roll a grenade in a room through the crack in the door, that's not positive identification, that's taking a chance on anything that could be behind that door," Pelley said.
"Well, that's what we do. That's how our training goes," Wuterich said.
Who's at Fault?
Four Marines were singled out for courts martial over the Haditha killings though some legal analysts believe the case could be jeopardized by the loose "rules of engagement" that let U.S. troops kill Iraqis when a threat is detected.
Nevertheless, as in earlier killings of Iraqi civilians - or the sexual and other abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison - punishments are likely to stop at the level of rank-and-file soldiers with higher-ups avoiding accountability.
