One of the many reasons that it is hard to credit the surge with anything more than a temporary effect—if that—is the fundamentally insane way in which the United States goes about day-to-day activities. The present controversy over Blackwater underscores one of those insanities. This article provides a good sense of the situation.

The insanity is not simply that we are using mercenary forces. It is that we rely on mercenary forces for basic security, and we have established a legal situation in which they have no masters except, maybe, the Bush Administration.

For those who like to talk about an Imperial America, I can think of no better evidence than our demanding that these forces be outside of Iraqi law. Extraterritoriality is what the British, the French, and every other imperial power has demanded for its troops and mercenaries.

That the Bush administration has exempted these forces from Iraqi law shows how little it really trusts the Iraqi government. That these forces are also outside American law is more proof that this administration remains both arrogant and incompetent. Iraqis see these forces as American, as well they should. We brought them there, and their crimes are on our hands. If we do not act, the Iraqis will draw their own conclusions.

If we cannot act, if as the linked article states these forces so essential that they cannot be curtailed, then what reason do we have to think that we can control anything else there? What good can such uncontrolled forces accomplish?

One last thought: to what extent is the proposed force drawdown dependent on maintaining or even increasing our reliance on private forces like Blackwater?