Fallujah: America's Heart Of Darkness

"The enemy has a face. It is Satan's. He is in Fallujah, and we are going to destroy him."
-Colonel Gary Brandl, US Marines

“Our God is stronger.” - General William Boykin (ret.)

Blackwater is the notorious ‘rent-an-army’ mercenary group which was founded in 1997 and is run by neo-conservative Christian (and Bush buddy and Republican donor) Erik Prince. Killers for Christ, you might say. Front-line soldiers in the Crusade in Iraq, where they are universally loathed by everyone, even fellow Americans.

Clothed in military fatigues and wrap-around sunglasses and bristling with weaponry, they like to knock cars out of the way with their humvees, to throw bottles of water at civilians or through store windows and to shoot at people for sport.

They are immune to Iraqi law, and above American laws. You may recall that on September 16th, 2007, a group of them opened fire in busy Nisoor Square in Baghdad, killing eleven civilians, including at least one child. Of course they lied, but it was established beyond doubt that their deadly attack was unprovoked. There were no significant consequences.

Blackwater’s reputation in Iraq was well-earned (they also pointed guns at the heads of flood victims in New Orleans) as early as March 31 2004, when residents of Fallujah (I will not apply the term ‘insurgents’ to people who are defending their homeland) seized four of the mercenaries, killed them, and hung their remains from a nearby bridge.

This led to a retaliatory siege of the city of perhaps 300,000 by US the military, but it was repulsed. A second siege was planned for just after Bush’s election (if that’s what it was) in 2004.