The silent civilian surge in Iraq

As the U.S. military conduct their "surge" by bringing in replacement troops early and delaying the departure of others, there is a second surge going on, mostly unreported on. Here, from MSNBC is part of this otherwise untold story:

There are more that 100 security companies operate in Iraq, not under Iraqi law. The U.S. military uses between 20,000 to 30,000 security 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. [Snip]

The military plans to outsource at least $1.5 billion in security operations this year, including the three largest security contracts in Iraq: a "theaterwide" contract to protect U.S. bases that is worth up to $480 million, according to Scott; a contract for up to $475 million to provide intelligence for the Army and personal security for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; and a contract for up to $450 million to protect reconstruction convoys. The Army has also tested a plan to use private security on military convoys for the first time, a shift that would significantly increase the presence of armed contractors on Iraq's dangerous roads.”

One in seven supply convoys protected by private forces has come under attack this year. One security company reported nearly 300 "hostile actions" in the first four months of 2007. The logistics directorate, after much prodding to include the civilian figures with those of the military, reported that 132 security contractors and truck drivers had been killed and 416 wounded since fall 2004. Four security contractors and a truck driver remained missing, and 208 vehicles were destroyed. Only convoys registered with the logistics directorate are counted in the statistics, and the total number of casualties is believed to be higher.

“Sharon, 61, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is rail thin with a weathered, intelligent face shaped by chain-smoking and four decades of military work. He works out of a small office that is also his bedroom. A humidor sits on his desk. A U.S. flag covers his window. Cartons of Marlboro Reds are stacked behind him near a leather-bound copy of the Koran.
Sharon called Falcon Security a "private military company."
"When you have this many men, you don't manage it as you do a corporation. You manage it very much in the military style," he said. "My men aren't carrying potatoes; they're carrying AK-47s. It's not pilferage we're worried about. It's people storming the walls."
Falcon performs "a military-like role" in Iraq, he said, "with one key exception: We do not, and have no desire to, conduct offensive operations."
But even behind the blast walls, the private and public wars collide, Sharon said. Last year, insurgents attacked a passing U.S. military convoy on a highway outside the gates. Kurdish guards in one of the towers opened fire, killing two insurgents. "The Americans were thrilled," he said.
"All of the work that's being conducted here in Iraq by private security companies would have to be conducted by somebody, and that somebody is U.S. military personnel," he said. "If you had 500 soldiers here, that's 500 less soldiers that you have on the battlefield. And this isn't the only site. There are hundreds of sites around Iraq where you have private security. Where are you going to get this personnel?"

This is something which has grown, unplanned, to try to compensate for the incompetence with which the Bush administration has tried to fight the unnecessary and unprovoked war in Iraq.

But ignore, for the moment, the simple sheer idiocy that has taken the American military into the Middle Eastern desert where it has no function other than to be chewed to bit. This entire superstructure of security forces has been built to compensate for the utterly idiotic decision implemented by Jerry Bremer to disband the Iraqi military and refuse to rehire any Iraqi who had belonged to the Baath Party. No doubt this monumental act of stupidity was a solid conservative Republican follow on to the world class foreign policy blunder of invading Iraq in the first place. This series of government decisions by the Re[publican administration of George bush is a disaster unmatched in sheer stupidity since Hitler invaded the USSR.

Since the U.S. military is not large enough to do what remains to be done as long as the Republican stupidity in Iraq continues, and since there is no political support for a draft to maintain the stupidity called "Iraq," the solution is to throw tons of money at the problem and create a massive mercenary army to support the American military.

The creation of these mercenary outfits is just another small disaster stacked on top of the massive disaster that is the Republican war in Iraq.

Iraq is not an American War. It is a useless war started by and continued by the Republican Party and permitted by careerist senior military officers like Richard Myers and Peter Pace. It is a distraction from the efforts needed to make America more secure.

Somehow the Republicans have worked to give the idea that criticizing the military for poor performance is failure to support the troops in combat. First, these troops are fighting and dying for the Republican Party, not for America. Second, look at the mercenaries who are also fighting and dying in this ridiculous excuse for a botched occupation. Who are they dying for? Their corporate masters? At least in their case the Republicans have removed the fiction that they, at least, are getting killed for their country. Because they aren't. The mercenaries are dying and being wounded purely for a buck. And it's not worth it.