Bush's mercenaries


A good article (Bush's Shadow Army) in the Nation on the use and abuse of mercenaries as an integral part of the Imperial Army. The primary focus is on the biggest private army, Blackwater, which is operated by the usual right wing, Republican financing suspects. This article is full of very depressing information.

Mercenaries are now officially considered a part of our Armed Forces:

To the great satisfaction of the war industry, before Rumsfeld resigned he took the extraordinary step of classifying private contractors as an official part of the US war machine. In the Pentagon's 2006 Quadrennial Review, Rumsfeld outlined what he called a "road map for change" at the DoD, which he said had begun to be implemented in 2001. It defined the "Department's Total Force" as "its active and reserve military components, its civil servants, and its contractors--constitut[ing] its warfighting capability and capacity.

Mercenaries claim to be subject to absolutely no laws. The families of the mercenaries killed in Falluja are suing Blackwater, claiming that it breached its contract with its soldiers for hire by, among other things, not providing armored vehicles:

After what they allege was months of effort to get straight answers from the company, the families filed a ground-breaking wrongful death lawsuit against Blackwater in January 2005, accusing the company of not providing the men with what they say were contractually guaranteed safeguards. ... This case could have far-reaching reverberations and is being monitored closely by the war-contractor industry--former Halliburton subsidiary KBR has even filed an amicus brief supporting Blackwater. If the lawsuit is successful, it could pave the way for a tobacco litigation-type scenario, where war contractors find themselves besieged by legal claims of workers killed or injured in war zones.

As the case has made its way through the court system, Blackwater has enlisted powerhouse Republican lawyers to defend it, ... Blackwater has not formally debated the specific allegations in the suit, but what has emerged in its court filings is a series of legal arguments intended to bolster Blackwater's contention that it is essentially above the law. Blackwater claims that if US courts allow the company to be sued for wrongful death, that could threaten the nation's war-fighting capacity: "Nothing could be more destructive of the all-volunteer, Total Force concept underlying U.S. military manpower doctrine than to expose the private components to the tort liability systems of fifty states, transported overseas to foreign battlefields," the company argued in legal papers. In February Blackwater suffered a major defeat when the Supreme Court declined its appeal to hear the Falluja case, paving the way for the state trial--where there would be no cap on damages a jury could award--to proceed.

At the same time it is bootstrapping itself out of civil liability for its crimes, Blackwater is resisting efforts to place its employees (and itself) under the military "justice" system. The net result it craves is to be bound by no law at all.

This system has allowed the Republican war machine to prosecute half of this war under the radar (there is one mercenary for every American soldier) at a cost wildly higher than we would pay if we did it on the up and up through our own Armed Services:

In violation of military policy against LOGCAP contractors' using private forces for security instead of US troops, KBR had entered into a subcontract with ESS that was protected by Blackwater; those costs were allegedly passed on to US taxpayers to the tune of $19.6 million. Blackwater said it billed ESS $2.3 million for its services, meaning a markup of more than $17 million was ultimately passed on to the government. Three weeks after the hearing, KBR told shareholders it may be forced to repay up to $400 million to the government as a result of an ongoing Army investigation.

There are a number of problems with using mercenaries as an integral part of our Armed Forces. Primary among them may be the fact that these firms have a vested interest in permanent war. Unlike arms merchants, who can do very well merely preparing for war, these firms need war to really prosper. Years ago I read an article about prison construction contractors in California who were lobbying for more and harsher criminal laws. The more prisoners, the more money. The Blackwaters of the world will be lobbying for more war.
Posted: Saturday - March 17, 2007 at 12:05 PM          

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