Blackwater mirrors attitude of the U.S.

Blackwater USA is a private American security firm that provides services to the U.S State Department. It charges exorbitant prices to chaperone U.S. diplomats and their guests in and out of Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.

Yet unlike the U.S. armed forces, Blackwater mercenaries are not accountable to anyone. They are primarily composed of former military members attracted by the generous pay and the opportunity to relive the lawless American Wild West in Iraq.

U.S. soldiers hate them and detest their arrogance because they make life difficult for enlisted men. Armed to the teeth and riding Hummers, they show little respect for Iraqi life or property. Last week, they killed at least nine civilians and claimed self-defense.
Blackwater expects to extricate itself from this episode without any damage. They know they are exempt from Iraqi law and sovereignty.

Justice mandates that they should not be exempt from punishment. Many American servicemen have complained about the behavior of Blackwater mercenaries and the ill feeling they generate against the United States and its military, but no one on this side of the Atlantic is listening.

Having said that, I think the problem lies not with Blackwater mercenaries but with America's attitude toward Iraqis and Arabs in general. It is a relationship void of respect and filled with hate. Americans have little respect for Arabs or Muslims and even less for Iraqis. Therefore, it is natural that a reciprocal relationship would emerge, one categorized by hate and lack of respect on both sides.

During the age of colonialism, the British referred to Arabs and Indians as "wogs," and now the Americans refer to the Iraqis as "hajis." I refuse to believe it never dawned on the U.S. government that, from the beginning, its policies showed little respect for Iraqis. It is this lack of respect that led to the despicable events at Abu Ghraib and the stiff opposition America is facing in the region.

Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, is only partially correct in his assertion that America went to Iraq for oil. To this we need to add the Bush administration's need to punish those who have, for the first time in its history, brought it to its knees. And, since it could not punish the Arabs of the Persian Gulf or Egypt because it needed them, Iraq offered the best opportunity and, in the process, promoted terrorist organizations to justify its war on terror.
Poppycock?

Perhaps, but try to be an Arab or a Muslim in America today. These communities were the first to feel that hatred and disrespect. Their legal and civil rights were flouted and applications for citizenships or adjustments of legal status were refused. Their primary religion was ridiculed and equated with backwardness and terror.

Logically, if Arab Americans were forced to experience that treatment, does anyone think Iraqis are immune from it? Well, they were not, and Blackwater is proving that today.

There is no victory in this war, and there is no kissing and making up. The relationship for the next 50 years has begun. And judging by all indicators, it will make little difference who leads America.
In the meantime, if the U.S. government wants peace with Arabs and Muslims, it needs to work hard on achieving it. And the first thing it can do is respect its own Arab and Muslim citizens.