Countdown - Edwards on Blackwater
Former Senator John Edwards is on the Countdown. He comments on Blackwater and Iraq policy. Here’s the transcript:
OLBERMANN: Given how stretched the U.S. military already is because of Iraq, if men and women are in uniform are going to take over the Blackwater missions and the other private contractor missions there in Iraq, does that mean, as you suggested today, that the drawdown of current force levels is an inherent part to your proposal?
EDWARDS: It is absolutely crucial part of the proposal. The answer to this is to get American troops out of Iraq, which is why I’m committed to getting our combat troops out of Iraq, stopping combat missions, doing it the right way.
But these things that are going on with Blackwater, they worry all Americans. I hear it everywhere I go. You know, people wonder, first of all, why a company that—whose executives gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to Bush and to Republicans are getting these no-bid contracts with hundreds of millions of dollars. There is something wrong with this picture.
Then, on top of that, why are they usurping what the American voluntary military normally does in providing security? I mean, it doesn‘t make any sense. It has got to stop. I will stop it as president.
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EDWARDS: We need to have a system in place that ensures, number one, that this cronyism is eliminated. Only under the rarest of circumstances are private contractors doing something that the voluntary U.S. military ought to be doing. And we need—to the extent that they are, in fact, private firms there are private firms providing some level of service—that should only happen rarely, if at all. But, if it happens, they need to be the military chain of command, responsible and held accountable to the military chain of command.
OLBERMANN: So you would actually have Blackwater representatives or whatever the company is, responsible to local commanders in Baghdad or wherever they might be deployed?
EDWARDS: Yeah. But I don‘t want them at all. Let me be really clear about. I think only in really exceptional circumstances that they ought to be used at all. I think they need to be out of Iraq. I think that‘s the real answer. To the extent, in the short-term, it‘s necessary to have them there in a small way, they need to be accountable and responsible both legally and militarily to our chain of command.
OLBERMANN: On the point of the no bid contracts and the whole financial aspect to this, whether it‘s Iraq or Katrina, whatever the issue, does it seem to you that the current administration believes all problems should be outsourced to private contractors, that their mistakes are almost intended as a revenue stream for their cronies and their contributors?
EDWARDS: It‘s absolutely clear. You have seen it over and over and over with Halliburton and others in Iraq. You have seen the same problem in the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans.
Instead of allowing the people of New Orleans, which is what should have been done, to rebuild their own city—and, by the way, we don‘t need a surge in Baghdad. We need a surge in New Orleans. We need to help the people of New Orleans rebuild their own city. That job should not be outsourced to Halliburton and other multi-national corporations. It ought to be done by the people of New Orleans, who are given a decent job, paid a prevailing wage, getting health care coverage, having pension protection, and them being able to rebuild their own city that they love so much. (more…)
