Support our mercenaries
Their
chief corporate executives deserve higher profits
By
Saul Landau Read Spanish Version
The
words “Support Our Troops” stain the rear bumpers of thousands of
cars. The slogan, however, conceals a more pernicious demand:
“Support Our Mercenaries.” Yes, in Iraq, the mercenaries —
euphemistically called “paid contractors” — outnumber U.S.
troops, 180,000* to 160,000. Private security companies employ for
high pay former U.S. soldiers, ex-kidnappers
and torturers from Pinochet’s secret police, death squad heavies
from a variety of Central and South American countries and a few
leftover South African apartheid thugs as well. The companies collect
billions from U.S. taxpayers. A typical U.S. soldier serving in Iraq
makes about $57 a day. The estimated daily take for a Blackwater
security guard there runs between $500- $600. (FACING SOUTH A News
and Politics Report Sept. 26, 2007)
Imagine
a scene in the corporate boardroom of Whitepiss Security Inc., a
typical contractor with the Pentagon located in Upper South Carolina.
The Chief executive, a former Special Forces veteran who was friends
with Timothy McVey, and a diehard supporter of the Confederacy cause,
refuses to use the word “North.” This descendent of the slave
holding Col. Beauregard Fathorn gleefully counts his profits derived
from providing “security” in Iraq. Then he shares his thoughts
with fellow executives: “The Eyerack War,” he says, “has become
the most beautiful thing that has happened to this country since the
glorious attack at Fort Sumter. It has awakened us from the sloth of
peace and prosperity brought about by the treasonous Clinton
Administration.”
In
1997, a former Navy Seal from a rich family figured out how to sell
violence and enhance his wealth. Blackwater on its webpage disguises
both its greed and its murderous intent by referring to
“understanding of the need for innovative, flexible training and
operational solutions to support security and peace, and freedom and
democracy everywhere.” CEO and founder Eric Prince believed “the
military and law enforcement establishments would require additional
capacity to train fully our brave men and women in and out of uniform
to the standards required to keep our country secure.”
The
Website advertises “not simply a ‘private security company.’ We
are a professional military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping,
and stability operations firm who provides turnkey solutions. We
assist with the development of national and global security policies
and military transformation plans. We can train, equip and deploy
public safety and military professionals, build live-fire
indoor/outdoor ranges, MOUT (Military Operations on Urban Terrain)
facilities and shoot houses, create ground and aviation operations
and logistics support packages, develop and execute canine solutions
for patrol and explosive detection, and can design and build
facilities both domestically and in austere environments abroad.”
One could easily read this as an appeal to Congress to direct the
entire military budget away from the Pentagon and toward Blackwater.
Indeed, Prince has donated $200,000 to the Republican Party. (FACING
SOUTH)
Coincidentally,
Blackwater ranks first among 140 private security contractors in
Iraq. And its employees have killed more Iraqis than its rivals. (NY
Times September 27) The estimated worth of its contracts there runs
about $300 million. Why not? Blackwater advertises itself as “the
most responsive, cost-effective means of affecting the strategic
balance in support of security and peace, and freedom and democracy
everywhere.” Indeed, mercenaries have become “the fastest-growing
industry in the global economy.” The Independent
quotes
Peter Singer, a security analyst with the Brookings Institution in
Washington, who calculated that “security contractors” make more
than $120 billion annually. They have operations in at least 50
countries. “The rate of growth in the security industry has been
phenomenal,” says Deborah Avant, a professor of political science
at UCLA. The single largest spur to this boom is the conflict in
Iraq.”
(http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2984818.ece)
The
Los
Angeles Times estimated
the number of employees belonging to U.S. military contractors in
Iraq at 182,000, 22,000 more than the 160,000 U.S. troops there.
Twenty-one thousand are U.S. citizens. As of July 1, more than 1,000
of these “contractors had died; almost 12,000 were wounded.
(Reuters July 4, 2007)
Scrutiny
for this privatized violence came about because of the September 16
killings of Iraqi civilians carried out by Blackwater Security
employees in Baghdad. Even the U.S. puppet government responded in
anger to the slaying and wounding of what they claim are as many as
28 civilians — including small children. Heavily armed Blackwater
guards fired from armored cars and then called in Blackwater
helicopters to blast the residents with more firepower from the air.
Iraqi
investigators claim they have a videotape that shows Blackwater USA
guards opened fire against the civilians without provocation, claimed
a senior Iraqi official. (AP September 22, 2007)
Prime
Minister Nouri al Maliki responded to the public outcry by demanding
that Blackwater and its 1,000 plus armed private army leave. He
declared the Blackwater thugs’ behavior “a flagrant assault”
and a crime that outraged the Iraqi people. He then “banned”
Blackwater from Iraq.
Less
than three days later, however, Maliki’s puppet masters in
Washington notified him that they would not allow him to expel
Blackwater, whose absence would leave “a security vacuum” in
Baghdad. “If we drive out or expel this company immediately there
will be a security vacuum that will demand pulling some troops that
work in the field so that we can protect these institutes,” Iraqi
government spokesman Tahseen al-Sheikhly obediently informed a press
conference. (Reuters)
To
cover up the issue of “sovereignty,” however, Washington agreed
to “investigate allegations” that Blackwater thugs had shot down
Iraqi civilians in cold blood. In the meantime, Blackwater heavies
returned to their “guard” duties protecting U.S. officials.
Iraqis
have learned that the U.S. private forces act with impunity. Not one
of the approximately 48,000 private military thugs in Iraq has been
convicted of a crime. A 2004 edict by proconsul Jerry Bremer removed
these “contractors” from Iraqi court jurisdiction. Neither the
Iraqi nor the U.S. government has kept formal records about how many
Iraqis have died or been wounded by Blackwater gunslingers and their
fellow “security” guards.
The
Independent
quoted a high-ranking U.S. military commander: “These guys run
loose in this country and do stupid stuff. There’s no authority
over them, so you can’t come down on them hard when they escalate
force. They shoot people.” (Independent
Sept. 21, 2007)
The
mass media downplayed the fact that Abu Ghraib translators and as
many as half of its interrogators came from this private war sector.
Nor did they widely report that “contractors” pay far better
wages than the Pentagon offers to U.S. troops; so it should be
surprising to find “hired soldiers” training and doing war-gaming
— before the Iraq invasion. Private contractors built Camp Doha in
Kuwait, which Bush used as his launch-pad for the 2003 invasion.
Without
Blackwater and the other 179 “private contractors” who “help”
the U.S. military by providing “logistical support” and “security
services,” the President might have to call for 160,000 more troops
for Iraq. That would mean he’d have to demand a draft.
But
not to worry! Modern Republicans masquerading as conservatives stand
for privatizing everything — even military activities. When Darth
Vader served as Defense Secretary under Bush the First he began the
“efficiency” move to cut troops and increase private contractor
roles for military operations. Indeed, [Vice President] Dick Cheney
displayed an almost genetic weakness for using private rather than
public enterprise, especially as profit-making killers.
Coincidentally, Halliburton, which Cheney moved on to lead as CEO,
became a major recipient of such contracts. Clinton continued this
Republican, rational approach to war in the former Yugoslavia. (See
Jeremy Scahill’s, Blackwater:
the Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army)
Democrats
might begin to use imagination as well, a better use of their body
functions than hand wringing, and expose the mercenary quality of
Bush’s war. By laying out the mercenaries’ bloody record in Iraq
and then presenting the tens of billons the taxpayers shell out to
these murderers, the Democrats could demand a real cut in the
military budget. Just lop off the amount spent on “contractors.”
Hey, they could still claim
they support the troops and accuse the Republicans of supporting the
mercenaries!
Saul
Landau’s new book is A
BUSH AND BOTOX WORLD.
His new film is WE
DON’T PLAY GOLF HERE (order
his DVDs at roundworldproductions@gmail.com).
He is an Institute for Policy Studies Fellow.
*These
contractors do more than provide armed security for US personnel.
They do chores that previously belonged to regular army staff.
