Warriors for hire in Iraq

By P.W. Singer

Until Fallujah, the private military industry was largely hidden behind the headlines, present in the world's hot spots but never fully acknowledged. When a CIA plane mistakenly coordinated the shootdown of a planeload of American missionaries over Peru in 2001, few realized that the plane was manned by contractors for Aviation Development Corp., based in Alabama. When suicide bombers attacked an American compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, last spring, few understood what it meant that the targets worked for Vinnell Corp., a Fairfax, Va., defense contractor that trains Saudi Arabia's and Iraq's armies. When Palestinian militants killed three Americans in Gaza last fall, most didn't realize that they were private military contractors working for DynCorp, a multifaceted government services firm, based just outside the Washington-Dulles airport. When a planeload of men was arrested in Zimbabwe last month, with the local regime claiming they were picking up weapons on their way to an alleged coup plot in Equatorial Guinea, few understood what it meant when they turned out to be employees of Logo Logistics, a PMF registered out of the British Virgin Islands. When the State Department spokesman noted that President Aristide of Haiti left office accompanied by his personal guards, he left out the part that Aristide had outsourced his protection to the Steele Foundation,, a San Francisco firm.


During the major combat operations phase of the Iraq War last spring, private military employees handled everything from feeding and housing U.S. troops to maintaining sophisticated weapons systems like the B-2 stealth bomber, F-117 stealth fighter, Global Hawk UAV, U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, M-1 Tank, Apache helicopter, and air defense systems on numerous Navy ships. While civilians had always accompanied U.S. forces on deployments, all the way back to the sutlers who sold shoes and other consumer wares at Valley Forge, never had the U.S. military been so reliant on outsiders to accomplish its mission. Indeed, the pre-invasion ratio of private contractors to U.S. military personnel in the Gulf was roughly 1 to 10 (10 times the ratio during the 1991 war). Our allies, including the British and Australians, also depended heavily on contracted support.

In short, the roles performed by these firms entail the same risks or even greater ones than those faced by U.S. military forces. As fighting has spread, PMFs have been at the forefront. Blackwater, the firm that lost the four men in Fallujah, just days later defended the CPA headquarters in Najaf from being overrun by radical Shiite militia. The firefight lasted several hours, with thousands of rounds of ammunition fired, and Blackwater even sent in its own helicopters twice to resupply its commandos with ammunition and to ferry out a wounded U.S. Marine. The same night, Hart Group, Control Risks and Triple Canopy were all involved in pitched battles. Unfortunately, the Hart position was overrun. Abandoned by nearby Coalition forces, the firm's employees had to leave one of their comrades dead on a rooftop on which he and four colleagues had been fighting after their house had been captured.

The four men killed in Fallujah were professionals who had gained these jobs on the basis of their prior special forces expertise. Three had served in the U.S. Army and the fourth in U.S. Navy. Some had gone to work for the industry directly after their military service, while others had turned to the industry several years later. The L.A. Times described one of those killed, 38-year-old former SEAL Stephen "Scott" Helvenston, as "Hollywood's image of a soldier, blond, bronzed and broad shouldered." In fact, Helvenston had helped solidify that image, working as a trainer and stunt man for such movies as "Face/Off" and "G.I. Jane" and appearing on two reality series, "Man vs. Beast" and "Combat Missions," produced by "Survivor" creator Mark Burnett. Helvenston ran his own fitness video business before going over to Iraq just two weeks ago before the attack.

Lots more
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/04/15/warriors/index.html

toting around a fully automatic weapon and blasting the fuck out of anyone who steps out of line. Sorta like the ultimate hunting trip, and getting paid too. All this and no boot camp. Security my ass.

a mercenary? For the thrill? For the money? I am surely missing something here. I mean, I understand the idea of the military; you are an official, ostensibly protecting the "state". But a mercenary, a hired gun?

And there are thousands of these people.

Don't they want to have a life, you know do the family thing, coach little league, feed the dog, contribute to the community in a meaningful way?

I mean, is this what you put down on a job application? "I have been a mercenary for the last five years."

I do not recognize this country anymore.

My father fought in WW II under Patton. He was so glad the war was over, said it was "hell." Said he had seen enough killing and dying to last a lifetime.

And these folks WANT to get back into it?

Damn, I sure am craving the early 70's when it was cool to be nonviolent.

Pretty Darwinian really. The mercenaries certainly would enjoy the money, but I think the feeling of dominance would be enticing too. Also, some of the ex-military are probably addicted to danger. There is probably rationalization as well, about how this is another form of military duty, and thus imbued with nobility.

My dad was in the Second World War too, with Montgomery. He would have assumed these people were dangerously crazy.

I will grant that some of the support workers (drivers, laundry workers, cooks, etc.) were just mis-led by a big payday, and didn't really understand the ethical or practical consequences of their decision. They also didn't realize that when a population wants to throw out an occupier, they don't make these pretty distinctions.

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Before the war, private firms helped out with an array of tasks -- operating supply lines, running training exercises, and even assisting with the war gaming and battle planning in the Kuwaiti desert that later proved so successful. The huge U.S. Army complex at Camp Doha, where the invasion was launched, was built, operated and guarded by a vast private operation led by a consortium called Combat Support Associates. (While CSA was operating in Kuwait, firms in the consortium were registered as "100 percent Native American-owned" and thus could use Minority Business Enterprise certifications as a way to gain preference in the government acquisition process.) These roles were not without their risks. Even before the battle started, several private military personnel were killed or wounded in live-fire exercises and, in a taste of what was to come, two civilian technicians were murdered by terrorists in a drive-by shooting in Kuwait.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/04/15/warriors/index1.html