The shooting of Iraqi civilians on September 17 by employees of Blackwater USA, a private security firm hired by the State Department, has attracted attention to the role private security contractors play in the war, one of the biggest parts of the war in Iraq that the government has been trying to keep, well, private.

The New York Times reports that Iraqis originally claimed that Blackwater employees fired first, using excessive force and killing eight civilians, although in the weeks following the media frenzy over the attack, the body count has risen to 17.   Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has banned the firm from Iraq, but he might not have the authority to make this decision. The American provisional government established a law in 2004 declaring that private contractors, who now outnumber military personnel in Iraq, are not subject to Iraqi law.   Congress has no real control over these contracting firms, either - they are hired and controlled through the executive branch of the American government. But Congress is actively trying to change that and assert their authority over at least one aspect of the war.

"We have used private contractors since the Cold War, when Dick Cheney was the Secretary of Defense," said history teacher Ryan McKenna.   Privatizing security is nothing new, but we have never taken it to this extent before, or needed to rely on it so heavily.    "The main reason there are so many private contractors," said AP Government and Politics teacher Brooke Wagner, "is because it's cheaper for the government to hire private contractors rather than require the military to do the job."

 The Blackwater incident has become a symbol of the perceived problems of private security, the explosive result of a system that creates a paramilitary force that is not subject to the same regulations as is the military. The recent questionable conduct of Blackwater in Iraq - how questionable remains to be seen - is showing exactly how big a mistake the U.S. government made when it decided to outsource security and not provide a system of legislative oversight, and Congress has been scrambling desperately to fix that mistake.  

Congress is finally waking up to the fact that this is one aspect of the war in Iraq that it can change.   The House of Representatives passed a bill that would require private security contractors to obey American criminal laws.   While it is refreshing to see a response from the government about problems in Iraq, further legislation is needed to define more specific rules for contractors.   Private security is just one issue associated with the war in Iraq, and it is an issue we can fix before it becomes more destructive.   Congress is on the right track, but it needs to keep up its momentum and make substantive changes to the system if it plans no solving the very public problem of private warfare.