Black water has been training and in conflicts all over this world long before iraq. i was in military and then worked for dyno corp.from 92-94' until injury now am commercial diver.there are a ton of PMC's out there also tripple canopy is another big boy. they are all paid thru the government. of course the innocent are going to get killed its called WAR. dont judge until you have been there.
An inconvenient truth missing in the debate over Blackwater (which is currently in trouble with the Iraqi government over a shooting incident), is that the US military is completely dependent on private military companies (PMCs). This dependency can't be wished away or reversed. If anything, given the trend lines, PMCs will increasingly replace conventional military forces well into the future. The reasons are simple. Private military companies are:
Efficient. If you count the costs of 8 to 9 support personnel (in the DoD's extremely long bureaucratic "tail") needed to field every US soldier in the field and state-side rotations, the high pay for individual private military employees is a bargain (potentially 20% of the cost for a government soldier, not even counting the savings associated with medical care/retirements).
Scalable. There are currently 20,000 PMC trigger pullers in Iraq. These men are guarding facilities and key people across the country. This is likely more trigger pullers (as opposed to support personnel) than the entire US military currently has in the country. Without these men, the US military would barely be able to field a force large enough to patrol Baghdad.
Contingent. Unlike the hordes of bureaucratic Defense contractors that will permanently infest the halls of the DoD, private military companies field mission specific employees. IF there is a withdrawal from Iraq, there will be bust in the PMC industry as firms quickly shed employees