The number of U.S.-paid private contractors in Iraq now exceeds that of American combat troops, newly released figures show, raising fresh questions about the privatization of the war effort and the government’s capacity to carry out military and rebuilding campaigns.
Excepting, of course, the Dodobirds who question nothing the government does.
More than 180,000 civilians — including Americans, foreigners and Iraqis — are working in Iraq under U.S. contracts, according to State and Defense department figures obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
Including the recent troop buildup, 160,000 soldiers and a few thousand civilian government employees are stationed in Iraq.
The total number of private contractors, far higher than previously reported, shows how heavily the Bush administration has relied on corporations to carry out the occupation of Iraq — a mission criticized as being undermanned.
Like Peter Singer of the Brookings Institution said, “This is not the coalition of the willing. It’s the coalition of the billing.”
Anyone who has a needed skill and is willing to go to Iraq can make big bucks.
May I follow the WalMart model and take out insurance policies on them? With me as the beneficiary of course.
The story is a little misleading. Of the 180,000 private contractors, only 21,000 are American. 113,000 of them are Iraqi.
Still, though, this is what is so wrong with this war. It is going to continue as long as there is money to be made. If corporations were losing money on Iraqi operations, we would be out yesterday.
No doubt some right wingnut will post that only the private sector does a good job at anything.
#1,
No they wont, unless they can stay for the Full period of the contract. And the wages are Equal to Top wages in the USA for the same job. I have a friend that looked into it.
#3 and those makeing the most, are the Heads of the Contractors, and the corps.
#4, that is correct, as they Dont teach the military HOW to fix the Vehicles, anymore, its done from the private sector.
>>The story is a little misleading. Of the 180,000 private
>>contractors, only 21,000 are American.
It doesn’t really matter who is doing the actual WORK. The middlemen in this war-profiteerging debacle are all US companies like Bechtel, Titan, CACI, and of course President Cheney’s favorite, HALLBURTON.
Like usual, just follow the money. And somehow, when there’s fraud, waste, and criminal war profiteering afoot, the trail always seems to lead back to the neocons.
Makes good sense, right?
Our politicians and corporations want to globalize free trade.
3500 lower income dead Americans do not negatively impact the American economy.
America has the worlds largest military-industrial complex.
Corporation exist for profit only.
Corporate Government taxes are to high and our politicians want to return that money back to where it can do the most good.
So where is the down side?? All Hail George Bush, the man is a genius.
I look forward to the historical analysis of why the Iraqi people never stood up.
Put a raw recruit from US thru book camp and after 6-8-10 weeks you got a certified killer. Has the Muslim religion grabbed these people so firmly that 5 years of training doesn’t work???
Something fairly deep has been going on over there, doesn’t get reported. I read from time to time about army groups refusing to fight outside of their own home provence. Must be happening “routinely” for a full army and police force not to have been created 4 times over? Or is that all propaganda and all the training money went to Haliburton Mercenaires? Some day, we might know.
PS–Still not enough brouhaha over US Congress “nearly” stopping funding for Iraq war and Iraq Congress voting to go on 3 month summer holiday? Why didn’t we declare our own vacation?
When things don’t add up, we aren’t getting all the numbers
This is why the Dems in power won’t do anything- they want to be able to hand out those fat contracts themselves.
And look at all the chickenhawk neocons who don’t blink an eye over our nation’s political whimwhams being carried out by mercenaries.
It didn’t work for that other King George either.
What is the problem with private contractors? Most of the commentators have issues with profit being involved, but I find this to objection to be laughable at best. Remember the 35th Rule of Acquisition: War is good for business.
When Milton Friedman met with General Westmoreland and told the General that he needed to raise the pay for soldiers instead of having a draft. The General responded by saying, “I will not lead an army of mercenaries into combat.” Milton retorted with, ” Would you prefer to lead an army of slaves?” All the workers of Blackwater, Aegis, ect. accept the job that is offered to them and are paid extremely well for there refined skill sets.
I recently had a conversation with an employee of Blackwater who served for 30 years in as an S.F. officer in the Army, and I talked to him about the common view of private contractors. He brushed off the common view as being based on a stereotypical mercenary image, a view stemming from a general ignorance of the public. In the end, I walked away with more respect for those workers and the risk they take to carry out their jobs.
I’ve recently noticed a substantial drop in “news” from Iraq and I’ll take this as a positive sign. The lack of violent sensationalist stories is always a good sign. This particular story I’ll have to put in the “no news is good news” column.
#8 bobbo. “Put a raw recruit from US thru book camp and after 6-8-10 weeks you got a certified killer.”
It’s hard for me to understand how you could be so utterly misinformed.
You obviously have never been through boot camp or served in the military. Your making an apples and orange comparison. Americans fought and won in ~4yrs WWII, because our Allies and US understood and believed what we where fighting in.
IRAQ is, and never was an imminent national threat. Americans more so now are questioning why and for what we are DYING for over there?
Yet you callously expect the same failed strategy used in Vietnam (Vietnamization to work?
That is, train up, equip and support the South Vietnamese so that they could defend themselves and we could leave. You expect that to work in IRAQ? Extremely misinformed. I quess that is what happens when you believe BUSH hook line and sinker.
I just have to ask, with your WAR and BUSH support, why aren’t you fighting over there?
#12 –
“That is, train up, equip and support the South Vietnamese so that they could defend themselves and we could leave. You expect that to work in IRAQ? Extremely misinformed.” — Would you care to offer a clear, rational, and collected analysis on why that statement is true with respect to Iraq? Try to put your biases aside against President “BUSH” and bring something intelligible to the table.
>>All the workers of Blackwater, Aegis, ect. accept the job that
>>is offered to them
Nobody is complaining about the “workers”. It’s the non-workers, the middlemen, the war profiteers, who arrange things so that Dick Cheney’s stock portfolio will put him up there in a tax bracket with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett after the neocons are kicked out of office next year.
The workers are making a living wage. Halliburton is getting rich. FOLLOW THE MONEY.
12-13 Well basically it didn’t work in Vietnam because the corrupt government took the money for military supplies and bought vacation homes in France? And at the end, we stopped supplying equipment and repairs. So, on its own, the army fell apart.
In Iraq, its very different. They won’t fight WHILE we are there in full support. Looks like they won’t fight for (a corrupt government==or a government not supported by the Muslim Religion is what I’m guessing.)
I’m not posting for or against the war, or Bushco, I’m posting as to why don’t the Iraqi people stand up?
>>Would you care to offer a clear, rational, and collected analysis
>>on why that statement is true with respect to Iraq?
Ummm, how about “because we’ve been trying to do it since March 20, 2003, and it’s not clear we’re any closer than on March 20, 2003”??
How does that work for ya?
At some point, you just have to cut bait. Plus, we went in there under false pretenses in the first place. The whole thing makes just a great legacy for Dumbya. Death, destruction, and failure. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
#15 bobbo “It didn’t work in Vietnam because the corrupt government took the money for military supplies and bought vacation homes in France? And at the end, we stopped supplying equipment and repairs. So, on its own, the army fell apart.
In Iraq, its very different.”
I’ve got to ask, HOW SO? ARE YOUR REALLY THAT MISINFORMED? Does being so misinformed come natural, or is it something you work at?
More than half a billion dollars was stolen from Iraq’s Ministry of Defense by the people coalition forces entrusted to equip the Iraqi army.
It’s reported as one of the biggest thefts in history.
In October 2005, an IRAQ Judge, Radhi obtained arrest warrants for some of the top officials in the Ministry of Defense, and almost all of them fled the country, including former Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan, who is believed to be in Europe or the Middle East.
60 Minutes did manage to locate one of Shaalan’s top deputies, Ziad Cattan, who was in charge of military procurement. 60 Minutes found him in Paris, happy to be there and not terribly concerned.
Ambassador Bremer, who praised Cattan (Now in Paris) in his memoirs. After a few months working with the coalition on neighborhood councils, Cattan was given a position in the new Ministry of Defense.
Disappearance Of More Than $500 Million To Equip Iraqi Army.
17–Course I’m ignorant, thats why I’m asking questions. Your link half loaded and wont anymore for me. I think my motherboard is overheating this 4th of July. Anyhoo, I saw that pile of money captured in Iraq a few years ago. Why didn’t they buy supplies with that?
And if you are buying USA supplied equipment, how could any money for that show up in Iraq?
Either you are training troops and they stand up or you are not. So YOU are saying we did not train/equip troops because the money to do so was stolen, so we sat around with our thumbs up our butts because there was no money? What did we do with the other near trillion dollars more? I don’t believe that. Worse if it is true?
So, we spent what we spent and trained what we trained. Why aren’t the Iraqi’s standing up==or are all we trained doing so?? Again, something is just not adding up. I suspect it is the Iraqi’s getting the training and using it against us or refusing to fight because of the Muslim religion, but I don’t know.
ECA – I know a guy who’s in Iraq working for a contractor too and he makes three times the money he can earn over here. He does have to work for the full contract period though. Presently he’s there for a year.
#18. A good part of the problem with the training of the Iraqi army is that, in the begining, it was contracted out. The US Army did NOT want to do it – they wanted their SF guys to be hunting insurgents, not training Iraqis to hunt insurgents.
Eventually, training was made one of the focuses of the US effort and the military got serious about it, but at least a year or two was lost in the meantime. this was part of the cost of the state of denial the Bushies were living in, thinking that the insurgency was just “a few dead-enders.”
There is certainly no sign, however, that the Iraqi army is now, or will anytime in the foreseeable future, be able and willing to secure Iraq. At least so long as Iraqi leaders that someone else is willing to do the hard work for them …
19,
And Iv seen the photos of the burning trucks that JUST had flat tires, becuase they didnt want to fix it..
Iv seen the photos, of the Misc equipment sent there, thet just ended up being BURNT, and re supplied.
Ok, let just say because “Private contractors outnumber U.S. troops in Iraq”, military operation in IRAQ can be called a success and we can bring all U.S. Troops home.
The private contractors can stay behind. After all, it’s all such a resounding success, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
Bring our military home, now.
Yeah, better to have this done by government workers, who will then collect a full pension starting at age 62, including health care benefits. I for one am happy to see a little bit of cost control. Just wish we could get a little more. Where’s our Harry Truman?
>>I for one am happy to see a little bit of cost control.
That’s what you call war profiteering and 4 years of wasted money, “cost control”?? Jeez, Mikey, no wonder you voted for Dumbya.
“I say, therefore, that the arms with which a prince defends his state
are either his own, or they are mercenaries, auxiliaries, or mixed.
Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous; and if one holds
his state based on these arms, he will stand neither firm nor safe;
for they are disunited, ambitious, and without discipline, unfaithful,
valiant before friends, cowardly before enemies; they have neither the
fear of God nor fidelity to men, and destruction is deferred only so
long as the attack is; for in peace one is robbed by them, and in war
by the enemy. The fact is, they have no other attraction or reason for
keeping the field than a trifle of stipend, which is not sufficient
to make them willing to die for you. They are ready enough to be
your soldiers whilst you do not make war, but if war comes they take
themselves off or run from the foe; which I should have little trouble
to prove, for the ruin of Italy has been caused by nothing else than by
resting all her hopes for many years on mercenaries, and although they
formerly made some display and appeared valiant amongst themselves, yet
when the foreigners came they showed what they were. Thus it was that
Charles, King of France, was allowed to seize Italy with chalk in
hand;(*) and he who told us that our sins were the cause of it told the
truth, but they were not the sins he imagined, but those which I have
related. And as they were the sins of princes, it is the princes who
have also suffered the penalty.”
The Prince
Machiavelli
Milo, I have read the Prince and I would agree, but; as you know this is all so old Europe Rumsfeld has clearly instructed us so. Machiavelli had no idea of our modern Corporate Resource Solutions and Payroll Efficiencies to Optimize
Business Operations. Our Government is clearly not able to operate with such Efficiencies. I say declare MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, leave a well paid merry band of private contractors behind.
After all, as #11 mxpwr03 points out “I’ve recently noticed a substantial drop in “news” from Iraq and I’ll take this as a positive sign. The lack of violent sensationalist stories is always a good sign. This particular story I’ll have to put in the “no news is good news” column.”
That’s good enough for me, it’s all such a resounding success.
Bring our military home, now. Let’s have a parade!
#26, yes there is less “news” from Iraq. The American forces are providing less protection for independent journalists. It is just too dangerous for journalists to be running around the country without protection.
Don’t forget, it was the journalists that exposed most of the atrocities committed by Americans. There is little love there.
#11
What is the problem with private contractors? Most of the commentators have issues with profit being involved, but I find this to objection to be laughable at best.
Simply because they have criminal immunity that even American military personnel don’t receive. There is no checks or oversight on their actions. Maybe you can accept that but I can’t. Corporations exist solely to profit their shareholders, NOT to be benevolent.
When Milton Friedman met with General Westmoreland and told the General that he needed to raise the pay for soldiers instead of having a draft. The General responded by saying, “I will not lead an army of mercenaries into combat.” Milton retorted with, ” Would you prefer to lead an army of slaves?”
There is no validity to that quote. I really love the way you armpits make up crap. I spent almost an hour trying to find out where that came from. Lots of right wingers use it. BUT not one cited the source. There were several versions of it and your version is unique.
I recently had a conversation with an employee of Blackwater who served for 30 years in as an S.F. officer in the Army, and I talked to him about the common view of private contractors.
And I recently asked our dog if you were a nice guy. She didn’t say anything but she did get up and find another spot to lay down. If you want to post your views, then write them down. If you plan on quoting some anonymous source then it ain’t worth crap. NO ONE spends 30 years in Special Forces. If you had any military experience yourself you have known that. 30 years in the military and he would have either been Colonel at very minimum and most likely a General. They don’t hobnob with common views.
This particular story I’ll have to put in the “no news is good news” column.
This particular post I have to put in the bullshit column. So often you get called on some far out post and never reply. It is the chicken hawks that never served, like you, that got us into Iraq in the first place and want to pretend we are actually accomplishing something. You ignore the real news and hunt for the tidbits that America is winning. They aren’t.
But that is ok. It ain’t you kid losing his arm and eye in Iraq.
using mercenaries is an easy way of lowering public pressure. They are not officially counted as are soldiers, if they get killed, it’s single people who happen to have greedily chosen a well paying but dangerous job, they’re not “the boys”.
Let’s face it: Bush got the world into the Iraqi quicksand, and now no one knows a good way out. It’s a situation where only the forces of terror and extremism can win. Mercenaries, regular troops or UN missions won’t change that.
pj
Bobbo – One of the main arguments you lay out is that the Iraqi Army (IA) & Iraqi Police (IP) are not bearing their fair share of the burden. Morever, you seem to think that these organizations, along with the Iraqi population as a whole, are refusing to stand up. To some degree I would have to agree with you as more work definitely needs to be done. However, there are very encouraging signs across the country that in fact the Iraqi Police, Army, and population are doing more to provide their own security. Al Anbar province is always a good success story to point to, mainly Fallujah and Ramadi. A year to year and a half ago those cities were firmly in the hands of Al – Queada (AQI) operatives and supporters. Today, AQI continues to be hunted down in Al Anbar mostly by the Anbar Salvation Council members, and the various tribes that now have a blood feud against the organization. Recently, the Marines have been helping out even more as seen with Operation Fahrad Al Amin. Yet again, the problem still remains of finding, training, and equipping the IA & IP to secure the newly cleared cities in Al Anbar. If you go here (http://tinyurl.com/26kprq) it has a great write-up of Operation Fahrad Al Amin, a report that also states there is still a void in IA troop numbers to completely hold the cities. Here’s also another powerful exert that points out, perhaps the IA, IP, and the populace is beginning to stand up:
“”In our areas we probably have sufficient forces if they are not drawn off to be used in other parts of Iraq,” said Brig Gen Gurganus. “Our strength in numbers will be sufficient to leave a presence.” The Iraqi Army in the region is now manned well of 80 percent — close to 90 percent in the 1st Iraqi Army Division. As late as last year, units were at as low as 39 percent. Brig Gen Gurganus attributed the surge in recruiting to the Anbar Awakening and other tribes that now oppose al Qaeda’s attempt to subjugate the Iraqi people.”
Stepping away from Al Anbar, in the northern city of Mosul the majority of security operations are being carried out by the 2nd and 3rd IA Divisions. The presence of these two Divisions in Ninawa Province is encouraging because, these two Divisions “are among the four best IA Divisions,” according to DJ Elliot an independent military analyst from billroggio.com. The ability of the 2nd and 3rd IA Divisions to support themselves in a more autonomous fashion allows the U.S. to focus on Diyala province. Also, for the operations in Diyala for every MND there is at least one IA Brigade both to support and assistance in clearing operations, and in some cases there are 4 brigades for every one U.S. Stryker brigade.
Mister Mustard – You make the claim “that we have been trying to do it since March 20, 2003 and we’re not any closer.” Strategically speaking, if you compare what “King David” Petraeus is doing with Baghdad Security Operation vs. General Casey’s strategy the difference is night and day. The strategy situation I wrote above is radically different when compared to past operations. I can’t say for sure that the Baghdad Security Operation (the “surge”) will work, however the initial signs from the past weeks when the operation fully begun, is showing promising signs. Civilian deaths are down by 35%, large scale successful bombing efforts are down by I think 2/3, and over ½ of Baghdad has been secured by IA and U.S. forces. Even the news from Al Jazeera English has been subdued over the past few weeks, prior there was at least a 3 minute segment on some bombing, now it tends to be a 30 second clip of either a failed attempt or a smaller attack.
Doug – “There is certainly no sign, however, that the Iraqi army is now, or will anytime in the foreseeable future, be able and willing to secure Iraq.” That is a bold statement to make. I would agree if you said “…willing to secure certain sections of Iraq,” but several provinces are under Iraqi control without the help of the MNF. I was wondering if you have been following the 180 degree political turn of the 1920’s Revolutionary Brigade in Diyala and what your impression was. I remember you were somewhat skeptical of the Anbar Awakening Movement, do you see similar themes in this development?
Noname- Corruption seems to be your big issue. To a large extent corruption is one of the biggest problems facing countries in the Middle East, and the developing world at large. To expect U.S. forces to come into Iraq and change that practice in 4 years is overly optimistic. A change of mindset that large will take a generation, at least. To some extent high ranking ministers have been arrested on corruption charges, but no enough. Here is a great story from an independent journalist, Michael Yon, who is currently stationed in Baqubah (http://tinyurl.com/2zaync). He details a story of arresting a Lieutenant Colonel in Hit who was extremely popular for his ability to crack down on insurgents and crime in Hit, however he was also becoming more and more corrupt. A great first hand account of the difficulties facing MNF-Iraq from a great independent journalist.
Mr. Fusion – That’s great. I’ll send you a post card from Fort Bragg in January. For the record the person I talked to spent 30 years in the Army, 5 years in Vietnam and after in the 82nd, I think 5 in artillery, and than 20 in S.F. He recently retired to join up with Blackwater. Sorry for the mix up.