“We did the same thing in Iraq.”
Different in two big ways.
Blackwater provided protective service in the war zone - body guards, embassy guards. They did not field large conventional military units to conduct battles against other armies.
We (US) were openly at war - were were not trying to conduct war, while denying that we were.
We don’t really know what Blackwater did. We know what various government officials SAY they did, we also know that official government estimates of how many people Blackwater had in country were full fledged lies.
And technically no we were not openly at war. War was never declared.