Amid the frenzy of Blackwater-bashing in recent days, this story hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves. It describes how, after Poland’s ambassador was ambushed in Baghdad, he was airlifted for medical treatment by a Blackwater helicopter. I’m told that this kind of thing happens pretty regularly, with Blackwater coming to the assistance of embattled coalition forces, sometimes by providing fire support, but more often by helping to evacuate the wounded. Blackwater operates Little Bird helicopters; these are smaller and more maneuverable than the Black Hawks favored by regular U.S. Army forces. (The U.S. Special Operations Command also uses Little Birds.) They can land in the narrow streets of Baghdad or other Iraqi cities much more readily than can a Black Hawk.

Blackwater gives its personnel, most of them military veterans, full freedom to carry out these types of missions (which they are not obligated to do under their State Department contract). Sometimes they are able to arrive more quickly than military aviators; there have even been occasions when a landing zone was judged too “hot” for a military flight—but Blackwater went ahead and landed anyway.

Is this how out-of-control war profiteers act?