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Hillary thinks she sees a vulnerability

Posted by POLIMOM in War.
Feb 29th, 2008 | Comments

Barely a day after The Nation’s Jeremy Scahill put out an article about Barack Obama’s position on private military contractors, Hillary Clinton has signed onto a bill banning their use:

“Washington, DC – Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton announced today that she has cosponsored legislation to ban the use of Blackwater and other private mercenary firms in Iraq.

Presumably she thinks she sees an exploitable opening in the Obama position. From The Nation:

“If Barack Obama comes into office next January and our diplomatic security service is in the state it’s in and the situation on the ground in Iraq is in the state it’s in, I think we will be forced to rely on a host of security measures,” said the senior adviser. “I can’t rule out, I won’t rule out, private security contractors.” He added, “I will rule out private security contractors that are not accountable to US law.”

I don’t think I’ve ever talked to a single person who likes the way the US has used private firms, and we’ve had a number of disastrous, controversial incidents involving them. That said — I believe Obama’s stance is correct. These contractors are fully integrated into every aspect of the operations in Iraq, and at this juncture, we cannot simply “ban” them. The most important immediate step we can take is to get them accountable (and evidently Obama already has legislation in motion for this).

Clinton’s move here looks to be both politically expedient and astoundingly naive.

I think she’s misplayed this badly, and I’ve written more about it here.

GreenDreams

Sounds desperate and dumb. Hillary knows better. I don't see that we have the forces to take over for the 100,000 (!) contract personnel in Iraq currently. Now that would be a hell of a surge. I think these contractors will threaten to pull out themselves if there's any attempt to make them accountable. What a stench this whole Iraq adventure has to it.

EEllis

Thats not what the bill is. The majority of the "contractors" are not armed positions. The main direction would be the State department who use thousands of security personnel from "contractors" and those contractor should be a better set of guidelines and clear cut laws. Regardless the majority of contractors would stay in Iraq since they are not in the employ of the US but rather private companies and Iraq itself.

domajot

Once again, politics drives our policies from one extreme to another. I'm glad to see that Obama's statement avoids doing so.

The contracting practices in Iraq are so chaotic that we really need to rethink tje whole mess in order to bring it under control. The State Dept has one set of guidelines, while the Defense Dept has another set. The process of subcontracting brings in contractors from other countries and no one seems to be
taking responsibility for their actions while in Iraq. It's just all about the money, and nothing about responsibility.

Obama is right, however, not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. The US governmetn simply can't replace the personnel provided by contractors. His own policy on this needs fleshing out, though. When foreigh nationals are involved, whose laws will prevail: the US, Iraq, who?
It's the nebulous nature of the responsibility and accountability part of contracting that has led to the mess. That needs to be straightened out.

Jared

I'm not sure that Hillary as badly misplayed here. Obama has been able to exploit her as being tougher from an anti-war point of view. One aspect of limiting the contracting of private military firms in Iraq would be to force the Armed Forces into a reconfiguration of the troops deployed there, and possibly a drawdown of troops.

I think Hillary and her people will be promoting this as "I'm already taking steps to end the war in Iraq, while Obama is still perpetuating it. Who is more likely to end it after taking office?"

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