A terrible incident happened in 2004 in the city of Fallujah, Iraq. Four Blackwater contractors were killed, dragged through the streets on fire, and hanged from a bridge over the Euphrates River (Flintoff, 2007). Some weeks later the U.S. military attempted to capture Fallujah, a stronghold for insurgents, but the U.S. failed in that effort. The U.S. authority in Iraq (Paul Bremer) issued an order in June 2004 that basically gave Blackwater immunity from Iraq law, Flintoff writes. When you are above the law, there are no rules of engagement. And several incidents subsequent to June, 2004, have brought negative attention to Blackwater. Blackwater guards shot and killed a man in June 2005 and failed to report the incident, Flintoff writes in NPR. A Blackwater guard is accused of killing a security guard working for the Vice President of Iraq (December 2006). And the most notorious incident occurred in September 2007 when Blackwater guards providing security for a State Department convoy opened fire on citizens in Baghdad, killing 17 civilians and wounding 24 others.

Blackwater claimed they fired in self-defense, but an Iraqi citizen who was hit and injured, Hasan Jaber Salman, said (CNN.com) "No one fired at them, they were not attacked by gunman…I swear to God no one did anything to them at all" (CNN.com). The FBI report (Johnson, et al., 2007) on November 13, 2007, found that "…at least 14 of the shootings were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq."

In December, 2008, five Blackwater security guards were charged with killing 14 unarmed civilians and wounding 20 others (Vicini, 2008). But on December 31, 2009, a federal judge "threw out the indictment of five former Blackwater security guards" because of "the government's mishandling of the case" (Savage, 2010). The judge (Ricardo M. Urbina) called the government's actions in handling the case "a reckless violation of the defendant's constitutional rights" (Savage, 2010).

Conclusion

Deciding what is a proper rule of engagement should not be the job of a member of the armed forces in a hostile environment. That decision should...

That said, a commander must be absolutely certain his protocol with reference to ROE is fully understood and fully compatible with the kind of warfare he and his unit are to be engaged in.
Works Cited

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Flintoff, Corey. (2007). Timeline: Blackwater and Security Regulations. National Public Radio.

Retrieved Nov. 6, 2010, from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyld=17269881.

Henseler, Sean P. (2006). U.S. Naval War College / Joint Military Operations Department / Self-

Defense in the Maritime Environment Under the New Standing Rules of Engagement/

Standing Rules for the Use of Force. Naval War Review, Vol. LIII, 2006, 211-228.

International Committee of the Red Cross. (2009). Direct participation in hostilities: questions & Answers. Retrieved Nov. 8, 2010, from http://www.icrc.org.

Johnson, David, and Broder, John M. (2007), F.B.I. Says Guards Killed 14 Iraqis Without

Cause. The New York Times. Retrieved Nov. 8, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com.

Rose, Stephen a. (1998). Crafting the Rules of Engagement for Haiti. International Law Studies:

The Law of Military Operations, Naval War College Press, pp. 225-237.

RTE News. (2007). U.S. security firm Blackwater banned from Iraq. Retrieved Nov. 7, 2010,

From http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0917/iraq.html.

Savage, Charlie. (2010). Judge Drops Charges From Blackwater Deaths in Iraq. The New York

Times. Retrieved Nov. 8, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com.

The United States Naval War College. (2004). Joint Military Operations Department / Blue

Force Standing Rules of Engagement.

Vicini, James. (2008). Blackwater guards charged in Iraq shooting. Reuters. Retrieved Nov. 7,

2010, from http://www.reuters.com.