Iraq’s Parallel War: War Of The Contractors

Did you know that there is an out-of-sight, out-of-mind parallel, life and death battle being waged in Iraq? The Washington Post offers details on this less publicized but surely deadly parallel war:

Private security companies, funded by billions of dollars in U.S. military and State Department contracts, are fighting insurgents on a widening scale in Iraq, enduring daily attacks, returning fire and taking hundreds of casualties that have been underreported and sometimes concealed, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials and company representatives.

While the military has built up troops in an ongoing campaign to secure Baghdad, the security companies, out of public view, have been engaged in a parallel surge, boosting manpower, adding expensive armor and stepping up evasive action as attacks increase, the officials and company representatives said. One in seven supply convoys protected by private forces has come under attack this year, according to previously unreleased statistics; one security company reported nearly 300 “hostile actions” in the first four months.

In a sense, it stands to reason. By most accounts the Iraq war is a trailblazer in terms of the extent of participation of private companies. And if all American forces are considered fair-play targets by those battling the U.S., it stands to reason contractors would be, too…and would either have to protect themselves or eventually pull out. MORE:

The majority of the more than 100 security companies operate outside of Iraqi law, in part because of bureaucratic delays and corruption in the Iraqi government licensing process, according to U.S. officials. Blackwater USA, a prominent North Carolina firm that protects U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, and several other companies have not applied, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. Blackwater said that it obtained a one-year license in 2005 but that shifting Iraqi government policy has impeded its attempts to renew.

The security industry’s enormous growth has been facilitated by the U.S. military, which uses the 20,000 to 30,000 contractors to offset chronic troop shortages. Armed contractors protect all convoys transporting reconstruction materiel, including vehicles, weapons and ammunition for the Iraqi army and police. They guard key U.S. military installations and provide personal security for at least three commanding generals, including Air Force Maj. Gen. Darryl A. Scott, who oversees U.S. military contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Iraq Slogger offers one of the more interesting takes on this story. Excerpts:

Today’s big story comes from the Washington Post’s Steve Fainaru, who peels back a lot of layers on the use of private military contractors in Iraq. In short, there’s a lot of them, they cost a lot of money and a lot of them are dying — all largely out of sight of the American public, which is mostly how the U.S. military likes it.

AND:

The amount of money in play is also sobering: The U.S. military plans to outsource about $1.5 billion in security operations.

The story lacks a full accounting, however, with only the briefest of allusions as to why private security forces in Iraq are considered controversial. While it’s nice Fainaru reported that most of the 100 companies operate outside Iraqi law and that the number of what might be considered “private combat troops” is in the 20,000 to 30,000 range — about the same size as the military’s “surge” — the contention that contractors operate in a defensive role only is taken at face value. No mention is given to their rules of engagement, discipline and the opinions of U.S. troops on the ground. In the past, U.S. soldiers with contractors in their battle space have sometimes complained of the latters’ cowboy tactics. The views of the employers, advocates and even U.S. commanders guarded by the contractors is given full venting, however — all of which are bullish. Another big omission is how the contractors fit into the military’s chain of command and how placing the contractors under the UCMJ (implemented in the FY2007 Military Authorization Act) is working out.

The reason for a lot of this: just as governments indulge in spin, so do corporations (if not a lot of comfortable public relations people would be out of business). The true story of the impact — and ordeal — of the contractors most likely won’t come to light until after the U.S. is out of Iraq.

In other words: not in the near future.