The brutal attacks on American contractors (albeit paramilitary contractors) is all over the news. Go read Phil Carter’s take on it.
Though American taxpayers will pay the bill, it is the Iraqis who will suffer. The deteriorating security situation will disproportionately hurt contractors, relief agencies and non-governmental organizations much more than it hurts the military. The US Marines and US Army can adjust to a more threatening environment much more easily than these civilian agencies can. And it is these civilian agencies that do the majority of good for the Iraqis. The tough task now is to convince the Iraqi population of this fact, so that they take the lead in stopping their own insurgent brethren.
I have a proprietary interest in the Marines in Falluja. They are the young men and women I packed supplies with for Spirit of America, and they are the ones pushing us to get them tools – literally right now, tools – to help improve the lives of the Iraqis they deal with every day.
Phil Carter’s good, eh? What a nasty day.
I found this alarming:
Perhaps Burns is just being pessimistic, but jeebus, what a horrible thing.
Indeed. They don’t seem to realize that if they continue on this path Falluja is going to be the hell hole of Iraq, far behind the rest of the country. And that will in turn inflame them further. Not a good situation.
WHILE I DEPLORE WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY, I AM EVEN MORE DISTURBED BY OUR LACK OF RESPONSE. NO, NOT THE”SHOOT THEM ALL” RESPONSE, BUT THE FAILURE OF ANY SECURITY FORCES(AMERICAN OR IRAQI) TO APPEAR AFTER THE INITIAL ATTACK. NEWS ACCOUNTS PUT THE TIMELINE FROM THE INITIAL ATTACK TO THE BRIDGE HANGINGS AT 75 MINUTES. IT WOULD SEEM WE HAVE A HUGE SECURITY PROBLEM IF WE ARE UNABLE TO EVEN APPEAR AFTER THE ATTACK MUCH LESS PREVENT IT.
VERY DISTURBING!
horseman
“WHILE I DEPLORE WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY, I AM EVEN MORE DISTURBED BY OUR LACK OF RESPONSE. NO, NOT THE”SHOOT THEM ALL” RESPONSE, BUT THE FAILURE OF ANY SECURITY FORCES TO APPEAR AFTER THE INITIAL ATTACK”
Simply mounting up all of your guys and heading for the sound of gunfire may have worked in the old day; this ain’t your dad’s war. Everyone knows that the G’s favorite tactic is to lay an obvious ambush on a small element, while the real ambush is intended for the reaction forces rushing to help their comrades.
And yah, seventy-five minutes seems like a long time but … but it’s early yet and we don’t know.
BRIAN
THANKS FOR THE RESPONSE. UNDERSTAND YOUR POSITION, BUT NOT EVEN AN OVERFLIGHT?
Horseman, I agree that it’s deplorable.
But the problem is that contractors are required to hire their own security. So Blackwater was not operationally linked to the nearby Marines in any way. They wouldn’t have necessarily known or even been allowed to assist.
Which is why, among other reasons, we shouldn’t be privatizing this kind of thing. Mess halls, yes. Fighting, no.
I have to agree with Praktike on this one. Privatization of security for the Military? Seems like a monumentally bad idea to me, but I’m no expert. Can someone explain the “pro” case on that one to me?
I thought I heard on NPR this morning that these Blackwater Security guys make $500 a day. Is that possible–that the four of them made about $750,000/yr as security guards? Is this the fruit of Rummy’s downsizing & outsourcing?
A couple of things; from what I hear, they are providing security to provate contractors; i.e. the guys rebuilding the power substation need other folks with guns watching out to make sure they don’t get killed. That’s a very different mission than what the military is doing, which is going after bad guys and controlling territory.
They are v. well paid; there’s a lot of discussion that SAS and SOG folks are getting offers in the $100 – 175K/yr range.
I’m less convinced that what they do should be a military function; again it’s not about force projection, it’s simply about providing a moving bubble of security around civilians who have work to do.
A.L.
So I guess the only public policy question is whether these private contractors are passing their security costs on to the US gvt, with whom they presumably have a contract. Is this a kind of revolving door for ex-Navy Seals?
Rick – Yes, and yes. Part of the cost of doing business someplace is the cost of keeping your people alive…
In reply to Fred, although I am no expert either, since there is a serious force depletion in effect and a large contingent of reserve forces and Nation Guard are forwardly deployed, it may be altogether possible that we have no choice but to rely on outside contractors to provide certain non-combat functions. Everyone else is stretched too thin.
There are wide ranging estimates that anywhere from 10,000 – 20,000 mercenaries are working in Iraq (I almost wrote serving, but that wouldn’t be quite accurate). Sadly, Blackwater Security had just recently gone in and they may not have been sufficiently oriented which may have contributed to the tragedy. But they seem to be a tough bunch employing ex-Chilien commandos, ex-Navy Seals, etc.
I have heard that U.S. contractors are deploying mercenaries to Cental Africa as well. This is troubling in that it is possible that this may be an attempt of private contractors to execute operations on behalf of foreign policy objectives that our government is behind. Where our government can gain no consensus from the American people, they will hire the work done to gain their objectives. That, to me, is very troubling.
Makes sense, sure, from a business standpoint. But I wonder what the political fallout might be if the American public knew they were paying $165,000 a year for security guards? Kinda makes the $300 toilet seats seem trivial.
horseman
“THANKS FOR THE RESPONSE. UNDERSTAND YOUR POSITION, BUT NOT EVEN AN OVERFLIGHT?”
1. posting in all caps is rude – it’s the text equivlent of shouting.
2. I don’t have an answer for you. I don’t know that there was .. or wasn’t … an overflight. I can come up with reasons why the CO on the ground would not authorize such. But I don’t know.
Granitng an overflight .. putting myself in the theoretical pilots shoes; the Getty images showed men and boys at the scene. What would the helo driver do? Order his door gunner to open fire? Killing kids ain’t done lightly. Firing weapons -at- the crowd (as oppposed to -in- the crowd) would be a useless gesture – they wouldn’t stop and we’d diminsh our cojones in their eyes.
3. I suspect that the Marine’s answer is being acted on as we speak. My personel guess would be to ID the leaders of the mob and engage Force Recon in some perseonel payback, in the early hours of the morning.
Rick,
This ain’t regular ol’ domestic warehouse security, Barney Fife with a bullet in his pocket. No Geneva convention protection,(however dubious that might be in this location) – the risks are high. Given the skill set, the experience, and the risk, a $165K salary doesn’t seem out of line for the work. Would that the delta guys and the SEALs see something like that salary!