They should have used Blackwater

CNN:

A car bomb Wednesday struck the convoy of the Polish ambassador to Iraq in Baghdad, killing one of his bodyguards and two Iraqi civilians, authorities said. The ambassador, three of his colleagues and 11 Iraqi civilians were injured.

The explosion of a parked car in the downtown Karrada neighborhood hit the convoy, made up of sport utility vehicles with Polish flags on the side, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said.

Iraqi officials said the strike targeted the convoy, but it was unclear if it was an assassination attempt on Gen. Edward Pietrzyk, the ambassador.

"In my view, it was a deliberate attack to kill," said the Polish chief of mission.

But a spokesman for the Polish Foreign Ministry in Warsaw said the government doesn't know whether it was a targeted assassination attempt or a random strike. Watch video from the scene of the attack »

The Polish deputy chief of mission in Baghdad said militants fired shots as the car bomb detonated. He said vehicles were "burned down" in the blast and that the people in the convoy, including guards from a private Polish security firm, were rushed to hospitals.

Pietrzyk was evacuated from the scene by a helicopter from Blackwater USA, the embattled security firm that protects U.S. diplomats, a source told CNN.

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While it is ironic that a Backwater helicopter did the medivac, what this event does is support the contention of the Backwater employees who reacted to a car bomb attack. It is part of the MO of the bad guys to fire at the security forces in coordination with the IED attacks. It is another example of how important Backwater's services are. It is also an example of why there is reason to doubt those who claimed that the Blackwater units were not under fire.

It should be noted that in testimony this week Blackwater confirmed that it had never had anyone it guarded killed or seriously wounded.

Strategy Page explains why Blackwater is still needed and who is really laying politics with the issue. In fact the anti war left is using the recent event to try to undercut the war effort and make it more difficult for the US effort to be successful. If Blackwater was not doing the job it is, Marines would have to do that rather than engage in counterinsurgency operations. Those who want to lose in Iraq continue to do things to make victory more difficult.