LETTER FROM THE EDITOR 10/29/07
I have a friend who is in the military, based in Utah. He is something like a drill sergeant. His job is to train troops who are about to be deployed, to get them in the best possible shape.
He works hard, since before any soldier goes to Iraq or Afghanistan, they are trained to the max. I wonder if the same can be said about the shadow army that serves along with our troops. The answer may be good or bad, depending on what happens when they come home.
Little attention has been paid to the private army of contractors and security guards serving in the Middle East; just brief flurries of interest over news items about violence. There's been no public reaction to the few stories reporting the fact that there are more of these private troops than there are of the U. S. military.
According to an excellent Los Angeles Times story, there are 160,000 U. S. troops serving in the war zone. There are 180,000 private contractors.
The U. S. government says it does not know how many privateer hiring companies are working in the Middle East; but it guesses that there are over 100. Some, like Kulak Construction, employ more than 30,000 people. KBR, the former subsidiary of Haliburton, has over 15,000 mercenaries.
Mercenaries is a strong word, but it's an accurate one. They are there for the money. The salaries of these private soldiers are more than ten times what U. S. soldiers make. But the private companies that employ them are funded by the Pentagon---so taxpayer money that supports U. S. troops also pays the much higher salaries of private security guards and contractors. You and I pay for this non-military army.
We know that nearly 3,900 U. S. soldiers have been killed since "Shock and Awe" began, but no one knows how many in the mercenary army have been killed or injured. Statistics are only kept on employees of those companies licensed by the Iraqi government, and less than a quarter of the private contractor firms in Iraq are licensed. Less than 25 per cent are operating within Iraqi law. So the total of U. S. deaths in Iraq is higher than reported, but how much higher, no one seems to know.
Meanwhile, the military will give this shadow army one and a half billion dollars this year. Most of that money will be spent on weapons, ammunition and fighting vehicles.
All of which begs several important questions.
This private army is equipped with the latest in combat technology and reports to no central authority. To whom do they owe their loyalty?
They are trained in military violence but without sworn military obligation; is there any check on their power? What is to prevent them from acting as an army of "security guards" on American soil?
Is there any part of the Patriot Act which allows a private army to be deployed in America against "suspected terrorists," a term that the Patriot Act defines with a very broad and fuzzy description (read it yet?)
These are questions that must be answered, and answered quickly. Americans should start demanding answers loudly, with one voice. It is not about politics, not about liberal or conservative, but about a situation that could get way, way out of control because no one stood up in time and said "STOP."
Wina Sturgeon