Iraqis angry that American justice allows Blackwater murderers to get off scot free.

Iraqis seeking justice for 17 people shot dead at a Baghdad intersection responded with bitterness and outrage Friday at a U.S. judge's decision to throw out a case against a Blackwater security team accused in the killings.

The Iraqi government vowed to pursue the case, which became a source of contention between the U.S. and the Iraqi government. Many Iraqis also held up the judge's decision as proof of what they'd long believed: U.S. security contractors were above the law.

"There is no justice," said Bura Sadoun Ismael, who was wounded by two bullets and shrapnel during the shooting. "I expected the American court would side with the Blackwater security guards who committed a massacre in Nisoor Square."

I had such high hopes for this administration and I find myself disappointed over and over again. These Blackwater (Or if you prefer Xe) mercenaries have demonstrated themselves to be trigger happy killers and yet we allow them to run roughshod over the people of Iraq after supposedly liberating them from an evil dictator.

Death is death to the people of Iraq, whether it is delivered with a bullet fired from the gun of Saddam's Republican Guard or from the weapon of a Blackwater mercenary.

Of course the people of Iraq never stood a chance of receiving justice so long as Erik Prince and his Xe "guns for hire" are currently conducting an illegal secret war in Pakistan alongside the CIA. Just imagine what kind of scandalous government secrets Eric Price has in his possession.

And if that wasn't enough to insulate Mr. Prince and his mercenaries against facing justice, we also learn from Frank Schaffer on the Brad Blog, that he has long standing ties to Christian fundamentalism.

Prince is the son of Edgar Prince. His vast wealth funded Dominionist organizations including the Moral Majority and Focus on the Family. I was connected to both groups, speaking often for Jerry Falwell, and James Dobson gave away 150,000 copies of one of my right wing “books” (A Time For Anger) in which I called for revolution against the “Left” and the “liberals.”

Erik Prince grew up with powerful leaders in the Christian Right. Prince quit a White House internship with George H.W. Bush. He said Bush was too secular. As a converted Catholic, Prince joined the Knights of Columbus. Today Prince sees himself as a Christian crusader, an armed one with a private army. Blackwater’s criminal torture of U.S. war prisoners has been documented so has employee intimidation and threats of violence. Prince sees his call to rid the world of Islam and make way for Christian hegemony.

Isn't it amazing how cozy the fundamentalist Christians in this country are with the murderers we send overseas to Muslim countries? One would almost think we were conducting Christian Crusades against our brothers in the Middle East, like the Europeans did back in the 10th century.

But surely somebody would notice if the United States were conducting a religious war, now wouldn't they?