Some laws won't work in war zone

By Doug Robinson
Deseret Morning News
Published: Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2007 12:37 a.m. MDT
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As a former private security guard in Iraq and Afghanistan, Dale McIntosh has seen nearly every ploy insurgents use to kill Americans:

• Staged car accidents to slow or stop cars and motorcades.

• Rocks placed on roads for the same purpose.

• Car bombs parked beside the road.

• Booby-trapped dog and cow carcasses in the middle of the road.

• Suicide bombers.

"It's very dangerous over there," says McIntosh.

Now attending school in Arizona, McIntosh has followed the Blackwater controversy with more than casual interest. In the wake of several incidents in which innocent people were allegedly killed by Blackwater security personnel, there is a cry to put all private security firms under law and subject to prosecution.

It's not as simple as it sounds. Can security forces — and soldiers, for that matter — work under the confines of a law that will make politicians back home more comfortable?

"No way," says McIntosh. "If you had a questionable shoot and there's a chance you're going to end up in an Iraqi prison or have the country turn on you, you'll second-guess yourself, and that could get you killed.

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"If someone is coming at you full speed, do you want to risk that they're really not a threat? If you order them to stop and they don't, what are you supposed to do? We had a sign on the back of our car warning other vehicles to stay 100 meters behind us. Anyone who didn't obey it, we had to stop them. We had that problem all of the time."

American soldiers make similar complaints that increasingly restrictive rules of engagement place them in greater danger — having to knock on doors before entering the houses of suspected terrorists, for instance.

If those on the front line are to be believed, Americans' distaste for war and its realities — and the resulting legal constraints — could get Americans killed. There seems to be a trend toward making war the same as, say, police work in the United States or an episode of "L.A. Law." Meanwhile, insurgents employ citizen suicide bombers.

McIntosh is a former Marine who was living in Utah when he was profiled in the Deseret Morning News last year. He spent 18 months in Iraq and Afghanistan serving as a bodyguard. He's one of many former U.S. soldiers who have signed up to work for security companies contracted by the State Department to protect U.S. officials and citizens.

For former soldiers, it's a chance to earn as much as $25,000 to $40,000 per month using the skills they learned and used for little pay in the military. All they have to do is survive exploding cars, road mines, rocket-propelled grenades, snipers, mortars, suicide bombers and military-grade assault rifles. More than 300 contractors have been killed.

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