<p>Plenty of people know that there are literally thousands of private contractors in Iraq to help the rebuilding effort, but what about the security contractors? Recently on NPR and elsewhere, Blackwater USA has been getting publicity as the so-called “vanguard of the private contractors.” These guys are basically a private special ops company that does the job for the buck (soldiers of fortune/mercenaries.)</p>
<p>The State Dept. has budgeted them over $750m alone.</p>
<p>Is this…good? Should the US be selling its security contracts out to private companies because it can’t fill its troop needs? Considering the fact that these guys are managing to make themselves immune to quite a bit of legal scrutiny, are they necessarily deserving of our tax dollars?</p>
<p>On a personal note, I’ve talked to a few military friends and acquaintances, and the general opinion amongst officers has been that they’re bad news. Enlisted seem to see Blackwater and others as a way to make a good living.</p>
<p>I can’t blame them, but I still worry about the implications. Anyway, thoughts?</p>
<p>One of the things that most disturbs me is the effort the Republican administration has made to conceal the total cost of the Iraq disaster. The money flows from so many departmental budgets and emergency appropriations that it is nearly impossible for the public to get a handle on it.</p>
<p>Nearly every department of government is being forced to divert some of its domestic budget to Iraq. Agricultural support. Justice support. Etc.</p>
<p>It bugs me that my future employers (yay?) are one of the largest sources of funding for an organization that I can’t seem to find any sort of real documentation for. I considered doing a FOIA for a project on them, and basically found out that Congress can’t get the info either!</p>
<p>This is a very disturbing situation. As it stands, without a draft, most of the country doesn’t feel the effects of our adventures abroad directly as it is. Handing over military functions to private companies without public oversight seems to work against a democratic government. Scary.</p>
<p>I am also concerned that the government does not have to, and in fact does not, record and report casualties among contractors as it does with soldiers, even when the two are performing the same jobs side by side. This means we have no idea of the real American casualty count in Iraq, even though the loss to our country and to the families of the fallen is the same whether the uniform said “Army” or “Halliburton.”</p>
<p>Blackwater and its Republican reps have set it up so that Blackwater is accountable to no body</p>
<p>They use the military connection to say, you can’t check into us or sue us, and then say they are private so they don’t have to follow the militaries rules</p>
<p>They hire people that trained in death squads in central and south america, they charge 900-1000 a DAY per mercenary, but often pay them 300 a day</p>
<p>It is so bad, and when they are saying, oh a contractor was killed, it was usually a mercenary hired by the US government</p>
<p>What I find fascinating is that two years ago on this forum I told about the mercenaries being hired by our government, and some posters here said I was making it up</p>
<p>If you look at the owners of Blackwater, they are one scary bunch- end times types</p>
<p>And while we are paying them a fortune- yeah, they are true patriots - our own government is classifying wounded soldiers as basically having most of their issues BEFORE they went to war so are denying them help</p>
<p>As well, you often have American soldiers in firefights along side blackwater employees who in essence are the commanders in that situation to the foot soldiers</p>
<p>I wouldn’t be surprised if an FOIA hasn’t gone through; I would assume because of the sensitivity of their operation, the information is classified and declared Members-only (from the Congressional perspective).</p>
<p>If the information is available but difficult to find, I’d hypothetically lobby my Member of Congress to request a CRS report on the Blackwater organization and have it made publicly available to constituents.</p>
<p>Mercenary implies some degree of competency for a reasonable amount of pay. Their pay was certainly not reasonable, and their competency questionable.</p>
<p>According to Erik Prince, they’re not mercenaries, but “loyal Americans.”</p>
<p>I never denied fighting to be a part of the mercenary description, I merely said they needed to be competent. Indiscriminately killing civilians (even in the battlefield, where greater screening precautions should be taken)… not a great sign of competency on their part.</p>