Help Wanted
Sep. 17th, 2007 08:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumGood Pay, exciting working condtitions
"10 days ago, [Petraeus'] commanders in Baghdad began advertising for private contractors to work in combat-supply warehouses on U.S. bases throughout Iraq because half the soldiers who had been working in the warehouses were needed for patrols, combat and protection of U.S. forces.
"With the increased insurgent activity, unit supply personnel must continue to pull force protection along with convoy escort and patrol duties," according to a statement of work that accompanied the Sept. 7 request for bidders from Multi-National Force-Iraq."
That makes me feel so good.
During the Battle of the Bulge we threw, "cooks and bakers" into the line. It was seen as a stopgap measure. Now, that we are doing so much better, we are going to spend the premium it takes to bring contractors so that we can do that as a matter of policy.
What does that mean? It means we can have more bodies on the ground, but fewer troops. We do this by paying more, up front. Great. The poor bastards who take these jobs don't ge the back end support a soldier does.
Injured in theater... here's your severance pay.
PTSD... hope you can afford a private shrink, or lots of booze.
What does the army get for this... cooks and bakers in the line. The "cush" MOS... not so cush when it gets outsourced.
And Blackwater is being threatened with the boot.
We'll see if that can be made to stick... see the now defunct CPA, rendered contractors immune from Iraqi laws (which means, for practical purposes, they are immune to all but some very limited aspects of US Law, [basically the War Crimes Act of 1998 is the only thing which can be applied] because the US position is, "The crimes didn't happen here").
More interestingly, they didn't register with the present Gov't when the CPA handed off. The US embassy in Iraq uses Blackwater for its security.
Which means we will probably get to see the sovereign state of Iraq being told it isn't allowed to exercise an important right of nations (i.e. the right to declare people to be personae non grata which is in short, an aspect of the right to control one's borders).
Why? Because things are so improved in Baghdad, since "The Surge", that Blackwater's helicopters were firing into crowded streets because a convoy they were protecting was fired on.
"10 days ago, [Petraeus'] commanders in Baghdad began advertising for private contractors to work in combat-supply warehouses on U.S. bases throughout Iraq because half the soldiers who had been working in the warehouses were needed for patrols, combat and protection of U.S. forces.
"With the increased insurgent activity, unit supply personnel must continue to pull force protection along with convoy escort and patrol duties," according to a statement of work that accompanied the Sept. 7 request for bidders from Multi-National Force-Iraq."
That makes me feel so good.
During the Battle of the Bulge we threw, "cooks and bakers" into the line. It was seen as a stopgap measure. Now, that we are doing so much better, we are going to spend the premium it takes to bring contractors so that we can do that as a matter of policy.
What does that mean? It means we can have more bodies on the ground, but fewer troops. We do this by paying more, up front. Great. The poor bastards who take these jobs don't ge the back end support a soldier does.
Injured in theater... here's your severance pay.
PTSD... hope you can afford a private shrink, or lots of booze.
What does the army get for this... cooks and bakers in the line. The "cush" MOS... not so cush when it gets outsourced.
And Blackwater is being threatened with the boot.
We'll see if that can be made to stick... see the now defunct CPA, rendered contractors immune from Iraqi laws (which means, for practical purposes, they are immune to all but some very limited aspects of US Law, [basically the War Crimes Act of 1998 is the only thing which can be applied] because the US position is, "The crimes didn't happen here").
More interestingly, they didn't register with the present Gov't when the CPA handed off. The US embassy in Iraq uses Blackwater for its security.
Which means we will probably get to see the sovereign state of Iraq being told it isn't allowed to exercise an important right of nations (i.e. the right to declare people to be personae non grata which is in short, an aspect of the right to control one's borders).
Why? Because things are so improved in Baghdad, since "The Surge", that Blackwater's helicopters were firing into crowded streets because a convoy they were protecting was fired on.
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Did you see this?
Date: 2007-09-17 07:37 pm (UTC)Iraq has cancelled the licence of the private security firm, Blackwater USA, after it was involved in a gunfight in which at least eight civilians died.
...The interior ministry's director of operations, Maj Gen Abdul Karim Khalaf, said authorities would prosecute any foreign contractors found to have used excessive force.
"We have opened a criminal investigation against the group who committed the crime," he told the AFP news agency.
All Blackwater personnel have been told to leave Iraq immediately, with the exception of the men involved in the incident on Sunday.
Re: Did you see this?
Date: 2007-09-17 07:45 pm (UTC)TK
no subject
Date: 2007-09-17 08:10 pm (UTC)I didn't think that there would ever be a day when "you and what army?" was going to apply in any sense to the US
no subject
Date: 2007-09-17 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-17 09:01 pm (UTC)The hiring of soldiers is something states get to do, so barring an actual law prohibiting it, it's legit.
The only sticking point would be the allocation of funds, and I'm sure there are enough pieces of legislation allowing for discretionary spending to achieve ends (like providing a security detail to an ambassador) to make it a doable thing.
TK
no subject
Date: 2007-09-17 10:23 pm (UTC)And even if they did, what's one more War Crime amongst friends?.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-18 04:57 am (UTC)As a taxpayer, I do have to wonder if we're paying more to Blackwater, Halliburton, &cet. for these "private contractors" than we pay our own/regular troops. (Mind you, I didn't object when we hired South Koreans to do the KP jobs I'd otherwise have been doing occasionally, on rotation, but we paid them a pittance (by our standards).
As I understand it, most or many of the mercenaries used in Iraq are recruited in other countries (especially in South & Central America), so our budget-conscious people don't have to concern themselves with things like pensions for those seriously maimed. I don't know what provisions might be made for immediate medical care of any who are injured in the line of duty.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-18 05:10 am (UTC)The forces we used to use to defend the members of the Foreign Service were cut, and now they are, "insufficient" to cover the need.
It wasn't money, because Blackwater has been paid $1 billion to provide the same services.
The rates I was hearing, for bodyguard work in Iraq was $30,000 a month, tax free, for one year, with a work schedule of 90/30 (i.e. 30 days off for every 90 days in theater).
And companies like Aegis (UK) aren't getting pittances. Even those which hire folks from Argentina/Chile/South Africa aren't paying peanuts, because they are getting people who have skills, carefully chosen from the Military, and Secret Police of those places.
Even if they aren't getting more than soldiers would (which I'm not sure is the case, I know they are paying as much as $100,000 per year to truck drivers at KBR), the contractors are getting more (because they have to make a profit).
The argument that this is cheap, because all the back-end offered to veterans isn't there means nothing if we believe the "Korea model" which would mean a long occupation; which at present we don't have the troops to maintain.
TK
no subject
Date: 2007-09-18 05:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-21 05:55 pm (UTC)As you predicted, Blackwater's back in biz in Iraq after "consultations" between the US and Iraqi governments.