Most Privatized War In History: Iraq

Going down in history as being the most privatized war in United States existence gets thrown around a lot these days. With the help of the United States government, private firms like Halliburton, Blackwater USA to name a few. The CEOs of the two firms mentioned plus a countless amount of others make anywhere between twelve to sixteen million dollars a year and pulling in billions of dollars in revenue for their corporation. Recently Federal investigators have uncovered what they describe as a sweeping network of kickbacks, bribes and fraud involving at least eight employees and subcontractors of KBR, the former Halliburton subsidiary, in a scheme to inflate charges for flying freight into Iraq in support of the war; it seems to me that these very “inflated charges” are how we as taxpayers are being cheated out of our money while the government that is supposed to protected us is letting these private firms cheat us. The first post I responded to “War Means a Windfall for CEOs”, from the blog, “Say-When.org”, by Michael Brush; in this post, Michael talks about how much private firms have gained in terms of stock and earnings over the years through the war in Iraq. The second post I responded to was “Iraq, Cheney & Halliburton: Greed Is Great “ by Max Blunt, and it talks about Halliburton and how they profited from Iraq with 10-year contracts, and the fact that win or lose, these death merchants make their money anyway.

Comment1:

First I want to let you know your blog is great; it is ridiculous how many private firms have benefited from the war in Iraq. I watched this documentary about war profiteers in Iraq and I couldn't believe what I saw; Haliburton is charging the government about $100 for every soldier’s load of laundry, and if the soldier refuses the service and tries to do it himself, he is ordered not to by someone. Many of the contractors hired by Blackwater USA drove empty cargo trucks; becoming a target for any terrorist organization in the vicinity. If a cargo truck gets a flat, instead of changing it, the drivers are ordered to ignite the complete vehicle; the purpose being if all these private firms overcharge the government, they are going to make higher revenue; but who cares about the working and middle-class citizens that end up paying these firms with their hard earned tax dollars; like you showed, the CEOs rake in tons of money every year. The cost for some is even greater than money; Middle American people that get involved in contracting become pawns to the bigger game in Iraq. Before stumbling to at your blog, I had an idea about how many firms made money of this war, but now I see that here are far more.

Comment 2:

I want to say that your post is well put together and factual yet in laments terms. Bush and his administration knew how much money the war was going to end up costing Americans; all of Bush’s daddy’s friends have had a huge amount of experience in Iraq, they knew how much unrest this war would cause in that region; since the United States military cannot profit, I feel like contracting to private firms is just inversing to government profit when instead they are actually huge loses. For these short-term monetary gains for a few handpicked firms and people, countless of families have been destroyed in this war; generations crippled with little or no choice but to get into terrorist organizations. I like how you pointed out that these contractors that get work in Iraq have no military training but yet pretend to be so there; Iraq is not a Starbucks parking lot, you cannot hire security in a situation like that. Well you can, but you probably won’t be the world super-power. Good blog, I am defiantly going to visit it again.

Blackwater USA: War Profiteers’

There are more than 130,000 U.S. military personnel and 25,000 American contractors that are risking their lives in Iraq, while many are greatly committed to their mission; some are seeking to cash in on the crisis. What is different about the occupation in Iraq; however, is that a huge portion of the effort has been privatized (contracted out to private companies). $20 billion of U.S. money has been spent so far on reconstruction of Iraq, ironically while the reconstruction has been contracted out, largely to U.S. firms, Iraqis who are supposed to benefit have been largely left out. They see private contractors, armed and dangerous, riding through streets without the training, the discipline or the accountability needed in an occupation such as this one.

Private firms are hired to supply security for the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority. Contractors feed the troops, transport the equipment, guard officials and buildings, and construct everything from military bases to electrical stations to school rooms. Blackwater USA, based in Moyock, N.C., one of three private security firms employed by the department to protect its personnel in Iraq, is heavily under criticism after the alleged killing of eight Iraqi civilians Sunday. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed regret at the loss of life and promised that the results of an internal investigation would be shared with the government in Baghdad, investigation or no investigation, the damage has been done and this time it looks like there are going to be consequences.

Iraq’s Interior Ministry said it had revoked the license of Blackwater USA, to work in the country. While Iraqis blamed Blackwater USA for the civilian deaths, the company said it acted appropriately “in response to a hostile attack” by armed insurgents. Rep. Jan Schakowsly (D), who has long questioned Blackwater’s role in Iraq said, “Under what law are these individuals operating, and do the Iraqis have the authority to prosecute people for crimes they’re accused of committing? It’s a very murky area; it’s still not really clear whether they are eligible for prosecution from the Iraqi government.

The argument for privatization is clear, advocates claim it reduces the load on the U.S. military (and, of course, helps conceal the size of the U.S. commitment in Iraq at the same time). In theory, private contractors – competing to offer the best service at the best price – are more efficient than government agencies or the military, and in an occupation and reconstruction, much of the work involves the kind of rebuilding for which the U.S. military has neither capacity for nor the interest.

United States contracting is far removed from the theory. Most of the large contracts in Iraq were initially made on sole-source, no bid contracts. Contractors were rarely held accountable for delivering the promised result, low bid initial prices were “renegotiated” upward regularly in the course of the contracts, and oversight was virtually nonexistence. Deals made in Washington by men and women in suits had very disastrous consequences halfway around the world.

The U.S. government spent $270 billion in overall defense acquisitions and contracts between September 11, 2001 and 2005. The killing of four men in is often seen as a turning point in the occupation. Killed, burned and hung from a bridge, their deaths remain seared in American minds. The men were not GIs but private contractors, employees of Blackwater USA, sent into Fallujah on business. The contract with the military required that every mission use armored vehicles, the two vehicles sent into Fallujah were not armored (buying unarmored rather than armored vehicles is estimated to have saved Blackwater USA $1.5 million in equipment costs. The contract required at least six people on each team: a minimum of two vehicles, each with a driver, a navigator and a heavily armed rear gunner (the victims in Fallujah were on a four person team with no rear gunners and no heavy arms. Business tends to bring out the worse in people because self-interest gets in the way of morals and the right thing to do, but taking politics and interlacing it with business proves to be a deadly combination. Not only are we losing innocent lives on both fronts, we are tarnishing the U.S. for future generations to come.