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You may have noticed that Halliburton, Vice President Dick Cheney's
former company, received another $1.2 billion contract the other day to help
rebuild Iraq's oil industry. The firm's commitments in Iraq are now valued at
more than $5 billion.
Less well known is the role private contractors are playing on the
security front, participating alongside troops in combat and peacekeeping
duties.
An investigation last month by the British newspaper the Guardian
revealed that private companies are now the second-biggest U.S. coalition
partner in Iraq. There are now at least 10,000 private military contractors on
the ground, compared with about 9,900 British troops.
We are, it turns out, outsourcing the war.
"It's a sea change," said Peter Singer, a national-security analyst at
the Brookings Institution and author of "Corporate Warriors," which charts the
rise of the private sector in modern warfare.
"The war in Iraq has taken an existing trend to stunning new levels," he
said. "We now have an industry that, in less than a decade, is making more
than $100 billion in revenues a year."
Roughly a third of the $87 billion to be spent by the United States this
year in Iraq and Afghanistan has been earmarked for private companies. Much of
that cash will go toward rebuilding infrastructure and providing logistical
support for troops.
But a significant portion -- solid figures are hard to come by --
will fund training of Iraqi soldiers and police by private contractors, and
security operations at strategic sites by private guns-for-hire.
Corporate forces are routinely placed in harm's way in Iraq and have
exchanged fire with Iraqi combatants. They kill when necessary. And they get
killed.
On Sunday, one private contractor, Vinnell, a subsidiary of defense giant
Northrop Grumman, anticipated calls from anxious relatives after a suicide
bomber in Baghdad killed at least 20 people outside a facility where many
security companies have their offices.
"All employees are accounted for and are OK," Vinnell said in a recorded
message. The company received a $48 million contract in 2002 to help train a
new-and-improved Iraqi military.
U.S. officials say there have been hundreds of attacks on private
contractors in Iraq since the country was invaded last March. Of this number,
several dozen contractors have been killed or injured. A more detailed
breakdown of casualties is not available.
"They're not being counted against the ledger," Singer noted.
"Contractors aren't factored in when figures are given for troops killed or
injured in Iraq. There's no official accounting of this. Almost everything we
know about them comes from the few stories that get told and a lot of rumors."
Firefights have been reported between private military contractors and
Iraqi rebels. The Washington Times quoted an unnamed former special forces
member, now working as a gun-for-hire in Baghdad, as saying that contractors
have shot and killed Iraqis trying to loot government buildings.
"It's Iraq," the contractor was quoted as saying. "You're accountable to
nobody."
By and large, the for-profit armies operating on the periphery of the
Iraqi occupation are comprised of former soldiers and military officers who
have chosen to take their unique skills to the private sector. Employees of
Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown & Root subsidiary are protected night and day by
a contingent of fierce Nepalese Gurkhas.
One leading contractor, DynCorp., says on its Web site that it's now also
seeking former law-enforcement officers "to participate in an international
effort to re-establish police, justice and prison functions in post-conflict
Iraq."
DynCorp. received a $50 million contract last year for law-enforcement
support in occupied Iraq. Other prominent contracts include the hiring of
Virginia's Custer Battles for $16 million to provide security at Baghdad
Airport and Britain's Erinys for $39 million to help protect Iraq's oil fields.
"How do you carry out command and control when you have so many entities
on the ground?" asked Brookings' Singer. "I even get military officers asking
me how they're supposed to operate in such conditions."
Like a Silicon Valley tech firm with too much programming to handle, the
U.S. military has been forced to outsource work because it doesn't have enough
in-house personnel to meet demand. In 1990, the United States boasted a
standing army of 2.1 million troops. It's now about 1.4 million.
For this reason, according to Singer, there is presently 1 contractor in
Iraq for every 10 foreign soldiers -- 10 times the number seen during the
first Gulf War.
And the outsourcing of global conflicts will likely grow in magnitude.
"The U.S. military is stretched thin right now," Singer said. "Do we
expect a world in which there will be fewer demands on it? No.
"What we're seeing private companies doing isn't just logistics like
serving food," he added. "It's incredibly important things like the supply
chain. It's military recruiting and training. It's actual weapons operation."
President Dwight Eisenhower warned in 1961 of the "unwarranted influence"
of the so-called military-industrial complex. "The potential for the
disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist," he observed.
"Eisenhower is probably rolling over in his grave these days," Singer
said.
David
Lazarus' column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He also can be
seen regularly on KTVU's "Mornings on 2." Send tips or feedback to dlazarus@sfchronicle.com.
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