'¿Blackwatergate?' Si lo hay... 'impeachment'

La newsletter de Foreign Affairs, revista de la Brookings Institution anota el siguiente editorial y enlaces.

Blackwatergate

The private security firm Blackwater has come under intense scrutiny after a September 16 shootout that left at least 11 Iraqi civilians dead. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has demanded that Blackwater cease operating in Iraq and Congress is raising questions about the accountability of the 160,000 private military contractors working there, a force that exceeds the number of uniformed soldiers in the country. In his article "Outsourcing War" (March/April 2005) Peter W. Singer argued that the privatization of war without oversight may be expedient but it is not good for democracy. In a new Brookings Institution study, Singer concludes that the use of private military contractors appears to have harmed, rather than helped, U.S. counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq.

+ "Outsourcing War", Foreign Affairs (March/April 2005)

+ "Can't Win with 'Em, Can't Go To War without 'Em", Brookings Institution, (September 2007) (PDF)

Un buen amigo mío, desde el otro lado del charco, empleó hace unos días un curioso término italiano braggadocio, que el Merriam Webster traduce al inglés por braggart y el Collins, a su vez, traduce éste último término al castellano por "fanfarronada", de fanfarrón; curiosamente, la etimología de la Real Academia señala: "Quizá del ár. hisp. *farfál o *farfár, y este der. del ár. clás. farfara, romper, desgarrar"; tal vez hablemos, también en árabe, de "rotos y descosidos".

De momento, sobre "rotos y descosidos", nos quedamos con la última consideración de Singer en el artículo enlazado:

The authors of the Federalist Papers, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison, warned about the role of any private interests not responsive to the general interests of a broadly defined citizenry. The Founders’ plan for government in the United States sought to make officials responsive to the general interests of this citizenry. In turn, it also set up internal controls designed to check the ambitions of those holding power within government. When private interests move into the public realm and the airing of public views on public policy are stifled, government makes policies that do not match the public interest. I hope our present day policymakers will keep this in mind as they weigh the issues involved in this new industry. It is too important to see through partisan lens, and too important to be clouded by private interests. It is a matter of national security.

Para "rotos y descosidos" de tales proporciones, los EE.UU., la democracia en su aplicación allí, tiene un remedio: impeachment; allí ha sido usado dos veces y, casi, una tercera... evitada por la dimisión del Presidente Nixon. Evidentemente, Dick Cheney no es Gerald Ford.

P.S. La foto se tomó de una página del Partido Demócrata.