Quote Originally Posted by marct View Post
I would suggest, as an immediate response, that a joint Iraqi, MNF and State department investigative unit be established to investigate and determine the appropriate legal recourse for any future incidents. I would also hope that a specific legal code be established for the operation of PMCs where they are not covered by other codes. Furthermore, I believe that if at all possible, and I'll admit it may not be possible in some cases, I would like to see punishment meted out in the country and specific local in which the incident happened, otherwise any claims we are making about helping to establish a rule of law are invalidated on their face.
I'm very much in favor of handing them over to local authorities or if that's not possible conducting any proceedings in the same area as the incident. My comments weren't directed as much at the IO level as they were the institution, so I didn't mentioned some of the things you brought up (great points, btw). We do need legal codes and transparent proceedings to show host nations that those things do work and do get done with as much impartiality as possible (something we are not always very good at, admittedly), but I think you also need to smack the companies in the wallet to really get their attention.