"Coalition of the billing"

Just when you thought the situation in Iraq couldn't produce any more surprizes, along comes a set of newly released figures that shows private contractors in Iraq actually outnumber US uniformed troops.

The number of U.S.-paid private contractors in Iraq now exceeds that of American combat troops, newly released figures show, raising fresh questions about the privatization of the war effort and the government's capacity to carry out military and rebuilding campaigns. More than 180,000 civilians — including Americans, foreigners and Iraqis — are working in Iraq under U.S. contracts, according to State and Defense department figures obtained by the Los Angeles Times. Including the recent troop buildup, 160,000 soldiers and a few thousand civilian government employees are stationed in Iraq. The total number of private contractors, far higher than previously reported, shows how heavily the Bush administration has relied on corporations to carry out the occupation of Iraq — a mission criticized as being undermanned.

This is the result of the privatization of military functions which were normally carried out by uniformed elements of the armed forces. It's happened in a number of militaries as a cost-cutting measure and, while it works on paper, in peacetime, it places a burden on the military operation.

"These numbers are big," said Peter Singer, a Brookings Institution scholar who has written on military contracting. "They illustrate better than anything that we went in without enough troops. This is not the coalition of the willing. It's the coalition of the billing."

You can bet that there are more than a few Bush corporate cronies getting rich off this. But there are actually more civilian contractors on the ground in Iraq than the survey captured. The "private security contractors" escaped scrutiny.

Private security contractors, who are hired to protect government officials and buildings, were not fully counted in the survey, according to industry and government officials.

The mercenaries. Blackwater, Olive, Aegis and Erinys all operate in areas that would have, in the past, been the exclusive function of uniformed combat troops. It is estimated they number in the tens of thousands.

Continuing uncertainty over the numbers of armed contractors drew special criticism from military experts. "We don't have control of all the coalition guns in Iraq. That's dangerous for our country," said William Nash, a retired Army general and reconstruction expert. The Pentagon "is hiring guns. You can rationalize it all you want, but that's obscene."

Further, the State Department is also hiring guns. None of these contractors fall within the military command structure and the mercenaries have been granted virtual immunity for any action they carry out which would be subject to inquiry in a military organization.

Logistics being everything in a war, one of the functions of a uniformed service corps is to keep supplies and essential food, ammunition and spare parts moving to the front. Unless it's been contracted out.

At one point in 2004, for example, U.S. forces were put on food rations when drivers balked at taking supplies into a combat zone.

Because they're not soldiers. One would have to ask how much the head office reckoned to save by not carrying out the mission they were contracted for.

It gets worse, particularly from a military theater commander's point of view.

Adding an element of potential confusion, no single agency keeps track of the number or location of contractors.

Potential confusion?! That's a whole new way to run a theater of operations. Rather than maintain a comprehensive accounting of the location and strength of every theater resource, you just ignore the largest portion.... because you don't really know who or where they are.

Of course, that's in respect of the private contractors providing services in support of the armed forces. The mercenaries are totally out of control.

The number of private security contractors in Iraq remains unclear, despite Central Command's latest census. The Times identified 21 security companies in the Central Command database, deploying 10,800 men. However, the Defense Department's Motsek, who monitors contractors, said the Pentagon estimated the total was 6,000. Both figures are far below the private security industry's own estimate of about 30,000 private security contractors working for government agencies, nonprofit organizations, media outlets and businesses.

So, the CENTCOM database says 10,800, the Pentagon estimates 6,000 and the industry itself estimates 30,000.

The reason for such largely skewed figures is the fact that the Pentagon doesn't employ all the hired guns presently in Iraq. The Pentagon's figure probably doesn't include those mercenaries employed by the State Department, USAID and other government departments. It certainly doesn't account for the armed troops hired by outfits like Kellogg, Brown and Root. The hired guns employed by non-government organizations probably don't show on CENTCOM's figures.

A future post will look further into the mercenary armies in Iraq, particularly Blackwater.

One of the figures rarely exposed is the casualty rate among private contractors in Iraq. When the US military releases casualty figures it includes uniformed troops only. They don't count Iraqis, remember, and they don't include the dead and wounded private contractors.

The death toll for private contractors in the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has topped 1,000, a stark reminder of the risks run by civilians working with the military in roles previously held by soldiers.

A further 13,000 contractors have been wounded in the two separate wars led by the United States against enemies who share fundamentalist Islamic beliefs and the hit-and-run tactics that drain conventional armies.

[...]

The department said it had recorded 990 deaths - 917 in Iraq and 73 in Afghanistan - by the end of March. Since then, according to incident logs tallied by Reuters in Baghdad and Kabul, at least 16 contractors have died in Iraq and two in Afghanistan.

Those killed in Iraq between March 31 and today included four contractors from the Philippines killed in a rocket strike on Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone compound, a frequent target of attacks.

The death toll for civilian contractors in Iraq, when compared to US military deaths stands at one-to-four.

And there is a strong indication that any draw-down of US troops in the next year will see a corresponding increase of "private military contractors".

That will make the 1960s mercenary wars of the Belgian Congo look like a playground game.

Update: RezDog in comments pointed me at this article in the NY Times.

Contractors who have worked in Iraq are returning home with the same kinds of combat-related mental health problems that afflict United States military personnel, according to contractors, industry officials and mental health experts.

But, they say, the private workers are largely left on their own to find care, and their problems often go ignored or are inadequately treated.

A vast second army, one of contractors — up to 126,000 Americans, Iraqis and other foreigners — is working for the United States government in Iraq. Many work side-by-side with soldiers and are exposed to the same dangers, but they mostly must fend for themselves in navigating the civilian health care system when they come back to the United States.

Given that the military system is doing less than a stellar job caring for uniformed returning troops, this does not bode well for someone unable to access proper care.