US Seeks Private Security Contractors To Train Iraqi Military

U.S. commanders in Iraq are for the first time seeking private contractors to form part of the small military teams that train and live with Iraqi military units across the country, according to a notice for prospective bidders published last week.

The solicitation, issued by the Joint Contracting Command in Baghdad, says the individuals that a contractor recruits -- who would include former members of the U.S. Special Forces and ex-Iraqi army officers -- will be trained in the United States with military transition teams (MiTTs) and shipped as a single team to Iraq. The recruits will live on Iraqi military bases "under Iraqi living conditions and participate with MiTT special operations and convoy duties," the solicitation says.

Thus far, the MiTTs have consisted of specially trained teams of about 10 to 12 U.S. soldiers led by a field-grade officer that were embedded with Iraqi army units from the division level down to the battalion level. The MiTTs have included officers and noncommissioned officers from different service branches tasked with teaching and mentoring their Iraqi counterparts to make them self-sufficient.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[bearman]

I think bushco should hire Al Sadar, to train those troops. His troops did pretty good a couple of weeks ago while fighting the Iraqi army.

[lookingAhead]

Sounds great, let them train the Iraqi army let Iraq pay them and send our troops home. Other than that NO!

[jerrypenguin]

One can only imagine the "final outcome" of the "privatization" of US military and police "services." It is obvious that "military privatization" means no accountability, control, or responsibility by the US government.

I am getting the same feelings in the US that I had during visits to neighboring countries south of the US border. I had experiences of being in the wrong place, wrong crowd, wrong time. This meant looking at the receiving end of a heavy machine gun and assorted weapons. Such incidents invoked a primitive emotional response.

Seeing the security guards within the Washington DC area gives me the same feeling. I'm sure many of these highly armed individuals were "private contractors". I believe they can be appropriately labeled mercenaries. Many mercenaries are deployed within the US. These mercenaries will follow the orders of their employers. Those orders are not necessarily in my best interest.

[hope4theflowers]

"These mercenaries will follow the orders of their employers. Those orders are not necessarily in my best interest."

they never are..and never will be.

[Nyland8]

"US Seeks Private Security Contractors To Train Iraqi Military"

Great! That way we can pay even more and get even less accountability.

8

[cdnnewsjunky]

I'd say that's the reasoning behind it.

[NoahVail]

Why don't they simply out-source this to the Chinese? After all- they know how to deal with dissent, and they will be using all the oil, anyway. By connecting them up directly it would save us the trouble of borrowing money from the Chinese to finance the operation.

[osage]

This is a clear admission that we don't have the manpower to carry out our military missions in Iraq. You don't hire sub-contractors if you can do the work yourself. You don't pay outside people more money than you pay your own people if your own people can do the job. If the "surge" has reduced violence to the degree being claimed, why don't we have enough troops available to train the Iraqi military ourselves? More taxpayer dollars down the Iraq war black hole of professional incompetence, criminal negligence and management failure. The longer we stay there, the more screwed-up it gets for everyone! How do you train people to be loyal to a government that trains them to kill their own people?

[GrandpaMcCain]

Thanks for breaking our military, Bush. You are such a disgrace.

[plages]

By the attached photograph, it looks as though the AK-47 is alive and well in Iraq, and possibly in Afghanistan! The AK is where you'll find the weapons of mass destruction!!! What ever happened to our wonderful technical expertise? Most likely, out the window with everything else that this administration touched!

[CFAmick]

How are private contractors going to train differently than professional US troops? They're essentially one and the same, except they're paid four times more money. As far as hiring Iraqis, these same Iraqis will earn a hell of a lot more money on Uncle Sam's dime than they will once they rejoin the ranks of the troops they've trained. What's their incentive to succeed?

I've written here before that Iraq already has hundreds of thousands of trained soldiers who did a passable job of preventing Iraq from being invaded by its neighbors. If they want to select officers and commanders based on political favors and cronyism, instead of merit, we should let them and get the hell out of their way.

[MagisterLudi]

This is stupid and useless on many levels

1. Iraq has it's only highly trained officers and war veterans. They should be hired. Regardless of tribal allegiances.
Problem: many Iraqi vets are afraid of Islamic terrorists in their 'hoods and may not want to be working for occupiers.

2. To have a Western style army you need educated recruits.
Islamic country's army cannot be transformed into am efficient post-modern Western style army.
Context. Soviets desperately tried to train Egypt and Syria and failed utterly. Highly educated country like Israel always kicked their ass despite enormous number superiority.

3. When U.S. leaves Iraqi army will sort itself out. Or not, if Iraqi falls apart ( more likely).

4.U.S. should leave Iraq but keep bases close( Kuwait) and periodically exterminating any Islamic militants that attempt to control any territory.

[Driver125]

Capital Idea! When you are building a state to act as your flunkies you don't want any ideas like 'love of country' or 'national loyalty' to start creeping into their thinking. Teach them your gangster ethos from the very beginning and everyone will understand each other perfectly and act accordingly. You could not have a better bunch to teach them that ethos than Blackwater--our very own American Gangstas.

[eyecon]

Iraq has a huge budget surplus. Iraq should be paying the tab for these contractors to train THEIR troops. If the government of Iraq wants us to train these contractors then they should be paying the US. The Iraqis should be responsible for hiring these contractors who should ultimately be accountable to the Iraqis.

American citizens should not be burdened with paying for services for Iraq. Our tax dollars should be going to far more important priorities. Many - if not most - of these contractors are not returning tax revenues to our treasury. Economically, it's a lose-lose proposition.

[Rog49Thomas]

What a brilliant idea!

I'm sure this came from our first ever MBA president who learned at HBS that when you have a stupendous success, you immediately replicate, replicate, replicate to get the most mileage out of it.

I'd like to contribute by giving some ideas about potential contractors.

First, the fine "Christian" folk at Blackwater to teach combat ethics and proper behavior.

Second, for the technical side, the fine folk who are responsible for the wiring in our military bases in Iraq.
You know, the ones where you can get electrocuted taking a shower.

After all his imagined accomplishments in Iraq, it's hard to believe that Pan could achieve more.

But he will!

[1differentdrummer]

We know the surge is working and the mission was accomplished five years ago, don't we? Did we learn nothing in Viet Nam? The Pentagon and WH make the same mistakes over and over, never learning.

[eyecon]

The "mission" WAS accomplished. Just look at all the money that George's friends and The Dick have made off of Iraq while paying less taxes on that money. Meanwhile, we are stuck with $4 gas with oil companies reaping obscene profits. Been to the grocery lately? Is this "trickle down?"

[browndog2]

Why not hire contractors to run Iraq? And besides, they work real cheap.