The Government, Not Blackwater, Should Have the Monopoly of Force

The deadly shooting of Iraqi civilians by guards working for Blackwater USA in Baghdad on Sept. 16 should raise many questions about the role of private contractors in U.S. national security. So, too, should the Bush administration's opposition to a House bill that seeks to place all private contractors in Iraq and other combat zones under the jurisdiction of U.S. courts.

The Defense Department's use of a significant number of private contractors for jobs normally done by military personnel started when Washington ended the draft, in 1973. Since the Pentagon no longer relied on the hidden tax of conscription, volunteers had to be paid a reasonable wage. To keep the number of military people small -- and hold down personnel costs -- the Pentagon began contracting out support activities like preparing food for the troops (soldiers call these duties K.P. or kitchen police) and routine maintenance. This trend was accelerated by the assumption of many federal, state and local officials that the private sector was, by definition, more efficient than the government. So government agencies began contracting out as many functions as possible.

In the 30 years since the draft ended, the US military began to rely increasingly on the private sector, even using contractors in combat zones and to provide security or force protection. Yet, the Pentagon did not develop any official policies as to what could and could not be contracted out, or how to hold private individuals accountable for actions outside the U.S.

Because there were no such guidelines, the Bush administration felt free to use contractors to make up for its own failure to send enough troops to stabilize Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, or to increase the size of ground forces so that they had sufficient strength to combat the insurgency. Now, there are more private contractors in Iraq than U.S. military personnel (180,000 contractors versus 160,000 military personnel). And these contractors are not just doing just KP, but jobs that should be done only by agents of the U.S. government - like security and interrogation of prisoners.

For example, the security services that Blackwater provides to State Department officials can and should be provided by Army personnel. Moreover, given the dangerous security situation in Iraq, these private contractors are far more expensive than military personnel. The full cost (salary, housing, and subsistence) for an Army sergeant would be from $140 to $190 per day. But the government is paying Blackwater six to nine times that amount. Moreover, since many of these freelance warriors were originally trained by the U.S. military, taxpayers are actually paying for them twice.

The important role these contractors play in Iraq was demonstrated during the confirmation hearings for Gen. David Petraeus. When Petraeus was confronted by the fact that, even with the surge, he would not have enough troops to implement his counterinsurgency plan, he insisted that he did -- because he was including the private contractors. Indeed, more private contractors have been killed in Iraq than all the non-U.S. members of the multinational force combined.

Though the deadly shootings of Sept, 16 (at least 13 Iraqi civilians were killed), triggered outrage in Congress and in Iraq, this is not the first case of questionable conduct by private contractors. For example, in December, 2006, a drunken Blackwater contractor killed the guard of Iraq's vice president, Adel Abdul Mehdi. In March, 2004, four armed Blackwater employees blundered into Fallujah in the middle of an U.S. military operation. They were caught and killed by insurgents -- forcing the administration to retaliate against the wishes of American military commanders.

Nor is Blackwater the only private military company causing problems. Personnel from companies like Triple Canopy and Zapata have also engaged in questionable activities.

The House bill is a useful first step to provide accountability. So is the order from Secretary Rice on Friday that special agents from the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security ride with Blackwater agents.

But we should not stop there. We need to begin decreasing the role of these contractors in providing security right now, and start turning these operations over to the military's special forces.

The longer we rely on these private security forces, the more difficult it will be for us to accomplish our objectives. When we do finally extricate ourselves from this quagmire in Iraq, Washington needs to put the contractors back into the kitchen. The government -- and only the government -- must have a monopoly on the use of force.

We know that using private contractors in a combat zone does not save money. If we need a bigger military or a return to conscription to wage preventive wars, let's do it.

Comments

[Mayme]

This whole Blackwater contract with the embassy was to push the tax payer to pay for the oil industries private security forces. Texans will do anything to keep from paying for things themselves. This way, you the tax payer have now outfitted these companies, that were nothing 4 years ago, into companies with helicopters, tanks, humvees and all the latest equipment. So they loose the gov contract, it doesn't matter, now they are all set to work for oil and gas around the world and oil and gas don't have to spend money to get their army up and running.

We are running out of oil, and gas will soon be on the decline. Rather than work to change; this bunch figures it is easier to just go take what is needed. Americans are too busy watching to see if Britainy has underwear on, to care about what is happening around the world.

[HOORGANVISOR]

I read a posting that someone thinks Satan is imaginary. He hopes more people believe that in the future so he can do his work without anyone trying to stop him. Besides, if there was no Satan, where did evil start? It is illogical and everyone should be living at peace if there is no Satan. People didn't live their lives at peace with everyone and one day say, "Living a well-adjusted life is boring. I think I'll go out and kill people." Those who fail to recognize an enemy as evil are likely to be destroyed by that enemy despite the warnings.

[splashy]

The Repubs like the contractors because the contractors funnel some of the money BACK to the Repubs, as a money laundering scheme so the Repubs can get our tax money legally.

The entire "War" is a scam to do that. It's all about profits, in as many ways as they can dream up, leaving the rest of us to pay the bill - for generations.

We have been scammed, thoroughly scammed!

[Ragtimer]

Hey Balloonman,
Here is a perfect example of the insidiousness of the
1% factor you seem to realize.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/09/1349230

[Hume]

Friedmanite free marketeers would tell us that these regrettable events are merely political events, to be simply ignored as irrelevant to economic events.

For Friedmanites the supreme value is the economy. If problems occur on the road to privitization in the ownership society, it is because market impurities still exist. The cure is to work harder to rid the US economy of impurities, which hinder the communication of market forces.
Human suffering is irrelevant. Free market medicine will make a perfect economic world.

If one wants criticizes the Chicago approach, their answer will always be the same: We must work harder to purify the economy.

Their logic is very similar to the personal egoist who argues that all human action is simply selfish. If one argues that a particular action is unselfish, say, a Fr. Damian giving his life to serve the ill suffering from Hansen's Disease, critics will respond that if one only digs further, a selfish reason will be found. There is no rebuttal to this, for further digging is always the answer.

There is no getting behind the mind of the true believer.

What the the Chicago Boys have done in Chile, they are hard at work doing in the US. Iraq and New Orleans are merely that beginning.

This is the Bush and Cheney agenda -- to kill the memory of FDR and the The New Deal, driving a stake through the heart of Keynesian economics. If Kevin Phillips is correct, they are well on their way.

Anyone who thinks we citizens are not in the hands of a radical group of evangelical economists ready to turn the entire world into their personal lab experiment is simply not watching.

We're losing this democracy, keeping ourselves occupied in the meantime by shopping.

Hume

[HartlessBeest]

We cannot ignore the fact that at this point in time, the U.S. is facing a serious crisis, taking into account the following: 1) A $5 Trillion Trade Deficit. 2) A Budget Deficit of $161 billion. 3) The U.S. Industrial Base has become an endangered species " now producing less than 30% of consumer products due to the ever increasing number of imports from China, Mexico and other countries. 4) The inability to solve the border problems. 5) The Iraq War and this administration"s intent to expand its military objectives to the limit.

THE PERFECT RECIPE FOR SELF-DESTRUCTION.

From the many comments I have read, I sense rumblings of an uprising in the near future. It is apparent we are heading in that direction if we stop and pause and seriously consider what we have completely ignored from the lessons of the past.

From Edward Gibbon"s "DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE" : "famously placed the blame on a loss of civic virtue among the Roman citizens. They gradually outsourced their duties to defend the Empire to barbarian mercenaries who eventually turned on them. Gibbon considered that Christianity had contributed to this, making the populace less interested in the worldly here-and-now and more willing to wait for the rewards of heaven."

Will they ever learn????

[CarmanK]

I agree. What is more puzzling is that so many of the guys are in the Reserves. Which leads me to wonder where the one million man army is located. And why are regular troops in places like Japan,Germany and South Korea while contractors are in Iraq.
The Bush administration has been derelict in its conduct of the nation's business and the war in Iraq. I like many others can't wait to go to the polls in November 2008, and I worry what more damage this irresponsible federal government is going to do. Every day, the Bushies seem to find another way to foul up this country and subvert its laws.

[bowserbois]

LOL, I liked your last few words. Wage a preventive war. Once you start a war, you can't prevent a war.

[Ragtimer]

Lawrance Korb's got it almost right, things I've been propounding since the beginning of this kabash.

However, the biggest irony in the whole thing is that this invasion is a corporate one. The oil companies should be paying for what evr they feel they need to fight for (i.e. oil, profits and power.) with the windfall profits they are making on our troops sacrifices.

Blackwater should being payed and controled by the Iraqis, not the US tax payers.

Actually the US troops are the sub-contratcors. We should get the hell out of there.

[Balloonman]

Ragtimer
Meaning we are, our NATION's entire force, military/industrial complex everywhere our thousands of bases from which to work out of puts us, use force manufactured by neocons ideas. And we become then THEIR EMPLOYEES. The board players shifting us pawns, thinking, well, we got the military and we got the influence and money beholding lots of power to us. We got the government strung up to deploy it. the whole NATION, for us. Our boys and girls and men and women, sold, sold and bought up, for any propogandized reason we say. We all go to war for it. Win or lose lots of money is made and lots of people are used up and killed.

MONEY ATTACHED to the war network is enormous and what is returned results therefrom into transcontinent POCKETS manufacturing incidents, reasons to war. Big reasons like WMD and NUKE AMBITIONS to be stopped in the bud or littler ones, like IED's with parts manufactued in IRAN and a military corporation REVOLUTIANARY GUARD deemed terrorist. Ugly ploys.

All devastation subservient to the return on the MONEY. It is more than disgraceful, it is treason. For our own family people, our rulers, bankers, to suck dry and empty out AMERICA for one-pernter personal gain. Sub contracting our enitre military and weaponry juggurnaut to serve the ends of the one-percenters. It really is sad. We should all beashamed we allow scum to rise above us to lead us to ruination and death for their pleasures. It really is a rottten state of affairs.

[Wyndespelle]

This War Against the Iraqi People was born of a grave sickness that permeates the workings of the Executive Branch and of Congress en toto. It is still very contagious and very potent and we need to be aware that it is about to be turned into yet another War Against the Iranian People. Several places in this article by Mr. Korb, trouble me as I am led to believe that he wants the war to continue and that he wants the Draft reistated.
What we need to do is to get out of Iraq immediately, ban the creation of Blackwater-type Corporations in the USA, pull all of our troops from Embassy Guard Duty around the world and from Afghanistan and reduce the size of our armed forces to a bare minimum of highly trained and disciplined men and women who want to serve for life. Then we need to keep them home and mind our own damned business.
That is a Constitutional Mandate and we should try it sometime especilly since none of our other ideas seem to have worked ...We can also pull Mr.Prince's Corporate Charter on the basis that the facts of its operations do not coincide with its chartered purpose in our society as represented by his application for Corporate Status.

[HOORGANVISOR]

I read so often that people want God to stop this war in Iraq. The problem is, Satan also wants the war to stop so that his people can become the new oppressors of Iraqis. So when I read something like for God's sake, end this illegal war, I could substitute the name Satan for God since he wants to wield more power in the region and we stand in his way.

[Balzac]

You keep saying this word, "God".

I don't think it means what you think it means.

[bowserbois]

ah, hello.... there is no god or Satan. Only in your mind.

[sa]

any time i see a soldier or general or politician on the news saying: the "bad guys" as in: we went after the "bad guys", or we took out the "bad guys." it makes me wonder.
by the "bad guys" are you refering to the ones who initiated an illegal war of premptive strike? are you refering to the, perhaps, million innocents killed - were those bad guys or the ones who killed them? are you refering to those behind the guns at haditha? was that 14 year old girl a bad guy? or those in charge at abu ghraib or the ones they tortured? or the people in or guarding at guantanamo? or the thousands of other incidents we haven't seen or heard of that went under the radar and weren't photographed - or if you told of them you'd be "unpatriotic." - you'd be a bad guy. rush limbaugh would call you a bad guy. is rush limbaugh a bad guy? who are the bad guys?

"bad guys"...hmm. hmmmm.. bad guys like those who left new orleans on its own? bad guys? bad guys who let rich companies make money off the sick and infirm? bad guys? what is a bad guy? is a bad guy one who would dodge war, but then send others children to war, and not allow any photographs of the coffins returning? what is a bad guy?

because i know what a bad guy is and the people in charge of our country are bad guys.
i don't think we get to use the words

"bad guys"

anymore.

[Balzac]

This is why the meaning of "bad" and "good" became reversed in American slang.

When the overseer said a slave is "good", that meant he was loyal to the plantation owner.

When the overseer said he was bad, that meant he had an attitude of freedom and was a risk for causing other slaves to flee or revolt.

We need to put Bush in his place (prison), so the meaning of the word ~Freedom~ isn't rendered meaningless in our language.

[BushSunkOurShip]

Bush need to stop replacing our mlitary officiers just because the disagree with Cheney's corrupted policies in Iraq
Bush is starting to use Petraeus for his political programs now.
If Petraeus doesn't not want to be citized for his bias political speeches , then he should stop letting Bush use him as their political propagandist.

[SimonOne]

Well said! You're absolutely right.

[jenniferforpeace]

i am in total agreement with sa. wonderful comment.
our government is being under control of criminals and it is our duty as american's to defend our country against tyrany. it's time people, we better act fast while we still can. the prisons are built, the policies/directives have been signed. we better impeach, indict and imprison. not just for our own country but for the world. this is a serious situation. please learn the facts. look up martial law, nspd51, hspd20...the whitehouse web-site will tell you everything you need to know. the revolution may not be televised, but it will be uploaded!
peace, love and respect,
jen

[flatus]

The Praetorian Guard alive and well in Iraq!

When the war finally ends, will there be enough room on the White House grounds for 160,000?

[theaetetus]

This is an odd article. We need immediate withdrawal from Iraq. We don't need to hand these jobs over to special forces we need special forces and private contractors to leave now!

[PMObserver]

The other sinister thing that having all these private military contractors does is it allows the Bush Administration to wage a war that the vast majority of the public does not support. If we had a draft, this war would never have happened. But as it is, the government can just spend billions to hire the troops it needs and we at home barely feel it at all.

For a good look at this, and the surprising way companies like Blackwater abandon their own employees, check out "Contract with America: Hard terms for the soldier of fortune" in the October issue of Harper's magazine.