Yesterday’s LA Times had an interesting article entitled “Bush’s rent-an-army.” Jeremy Scahill peels back the onion on Blackwater USA to show the extent of a private “professional military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping and stability operations firm who provides turnkey solutions.” Source Bill Sizemore, Virginian-Pilot news. Blackwater operates a 6,000 acre training facility for their “soldiers of fortune” in Moyock, NC.
In the Times story it claims that there are 48,000 private soldiers now in Iraq.
You should recall the story and photosof four private contractors who were killed with their bodies hung on a bridge back in 2004. They were employed by Blackwater.
After the first Gulf War Defense Secretary Dick Cheney retained the services of a subsidiary of Halliburton to study the use of a private military army in support of American soldiers in combat zones. In other words, “outsourcing.”
“The Geneva Convention expressly bans the use of mercenaries–individual soldiers of fortune who fight solely for personal gain.”
My question for Juice readers. How do you feel about the use of a private military that operates without any US government agency oversight?
No mention of how many OC folks are working for Blackwater. If you’re a reporter in Iraq you certainly need Blackwater’s services – the military isn’t about to provide security for you. I’ve seen some concerns voiced in South American newpapers about the danger to locals being recruited by them – put the pay is very attractive.
How many Americans volunteered for the armed services to protect Halliburton employees or news reporters – not many I’ll bet.
When they hung our boys on that bridge…in Falluja….we immediately sent $50 bucks to the
Blackwater people for their families. Seems like a long time
ago now. For prior service guys
who basically know how to operate
any weapon in the military arsenal
and are too old to re-up….they
sometimes become private security
people for various projects around
the globe. Iraq in this case…just seemed to be a great
way to make $100K…..protecting
various VIP’s or being outsourcing
security for jobs the US Army and
Marines think is less strategic than they want to engage in. There
are always those special circumstances in virtually every
country. There is no doubt that
the indigenous people don’t like
these “CIA look-a-likes” wandering
around in Black SUV’s streaming
“Get out of the way….you…so and
so!”….In any event these guys all
have families, are formally American Heroes…or have trained
them and are putting their backsides on the line for cash no
doubt….but basically to protect
American interests. Is it the right thing to do? Well, probably
not….if we had a Draft in this
country. But since not…who you
goin call if you are in a war torn
country and need security – Ghostbusters?
Deaths and dismemberments are not officially recorded on the contractors, so this is an easy way to keep “official” statistics lower by not reporting them like the military must.
This war is a PR nightmare. Cutting corners to quell some of the bad news is a face-saving move.