Les mercenaires US sont les mercenaires de Dieu

Un aspect peu connu du fort mouvement de “privatisation” des opérations militaires US, avec un appel important à des firmes civiles de mercenariat, concerne l’extrémisme religieux de ces firmes. Sur le site Truthdig.com, en date du 31 décembre 2006, on trouve un article documenté de Chris Hedges sur le sujet : «America’s Holy Warriors».

Hedges signale en effet la très forte poussée des religieux extrémistes pour gagner tout ce qui constitue les forces armées US au sens le plus large à leur cause. D’ores et déjà, 50% des aumôniers militaires des forces armées US sont de tendance chrétienne radicale. (On sait que l’USAF, notamment à son Académie de Colorado Springs, se montre particulièrement sensible à cette tendance.) Hedges décrit ce mouvement comme une tentative “fasciste” d’imposer un Etat théocratique aux USA. Il décrit plus précisément comment le mouvement chrétien radical est en train de constituer une véritable “Garde Prétorienne”, au travers des forces “privatisées” constituées par ces sociétés privées de mercenariat qui interviennent comme complément des forces armées régulières.

«One of the arguments used to assuage our fears that the mass movement being built by the Christian right is fascist at its core is that it has not yet created a Praetorian Guard, referring to the paramilitary force that defied legal constraints, made violence part of the political discourse and eventually plunged ancient Rome into tyranny and despotism. A paramilitary force that operates outside the law, one that sows fear among potential opponents and is capable of physically silencing those branded by their leaders as traitors, is a vital instrument in the hands of despotic movements. Communist and fascist movements during the last century each built paramilitary forces that operated beyond the reach of the law.

»And yet we may be further down this road than we care to admit. Erik Prince, the secretive, mega-millionaire, right-wing Christian founder of Blackwater, the private security firm that has built a formidable mercenary force in Iraq, champions his company as a patriotic extension of the U.S. military. His employees, in an act as cynical as it is deceitful, take an oath of loyalty to the Constitution. These mercenary units in Iraq, including Blackwater, contain some 20,000 fighters. They unleash indiscriminate and wanton violence against unarmed Iraqis, have no accountability and are beyond the reach of legitimate authority. The appearance of these paramilitary fighters, heavily armed and wearing their trademark black uniforms, patrolling the streets of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, gave us a grim taste of the future. It was a stark reminder that the tyranny we impose on others we will one day impose on ourselves.

»“Contracting out security to groups like Blackwater undermines our constitutional democracy,” said Michael Ratner, the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. “Their actions may not be subject to constitutional limitations that apply to both federal and state officials and employees—including First Amendment and Fourth Amendment rights to be free from illegal searches and seizures. Unlike police officers they are not trained in protecting constitutional rights and unlike police officers or the military they have no system of accountability whether within their organization or outside it. These kind of paramilitary groups bring to mind Nazi Party brownshirts, functioning as an extrajudicial enforcement mechanism that can and does operate outside the law. The use of these paramilitary groups is an extremely dangerous threat to our rights.”»

Mis en ligne le 2 janvier 2007 à 15H09