Security contractors in Iraq kill civilian. In other news, sky is blue.

I'm a close observer of the news. I read papers and blogs far more than any reasonable person should, especially for issues I understand and want to stay absolutely on top of, like Iraq. But I still don't have a good handle on how and why events or issues that have been ongoing for a long time bubble up into a full-blown media narrative; sometimes it's a combination of things and sometimes it just seems random.

Today we have another story of allegedly unprovoked security contractor violence killing an innocent civilian in Iraq. Regardless even of whether this specific incident is true, this kind of thing happens *all the time.* It's a problem exacerbated within contractors because of the lack of accountability and oversight, but it's also by no means limited to contractors, simply because when every car is a potential danger, normal driver behavior can start to look awful threatening. And with rules of engagement sometimes fuzzy (again, especially for contractors), people start to err decisively on the side of "shoot first, ask questions later."

To some extent, on a micro level, this is understandable: self-protection is an overwhelming instinct, and the vast, vast majority of troops and contractors have no desire to hurt others unless necessary. The problem lies in the definition of "necessary," which is surprisingly malleable depending on the circumstances. But when people talk about our presence being an irritant rather than a salve, these kinds of events are part of what they're talking about.