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| 5/26 |
| 2005/12/22-24 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:41115 Activity:kinda low |
12/22 Can't get any Americans to volunteer for your illegal war? No
problem, just hire mercenaries, 100,000 and counting...
http://csua.org/u/eev
\_ everyone has a price.
\- you know i dont really feel that sorry for the
highly paid mercenaries who take jobs in the
security sector. i'd spend your sympathy points
on people like the poor [financially] nepalis
duped into jobs in iraq and then killed or
people serving in the military/reserves in
iraq who are under ORDERS to do things like
this for shit pay and no option to walk away.
you can (not love) cigarette and gun mfgrs and
still believe they should not be sued for
lung cancer/gun deaths. you seem to be an
incoherent liberal. i say that dispassionately.
\_ All the poster mentioned was about hiring
mercenaries. Where the hell did you come
up with that other stuff?
\_ Interesting, mr. or mrs. dispassionate. I don't find any
implication about sympathy for the mercenaries in either the
above post or the article. So far, between the two, I'd
choose yourself if I had to pick who is "incoherent". Which is
a shame, since all your other points are good - if applied to
a different discussion perhaps.
\-hello you may wish to see:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-09/01/content_370757.htm
and
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1018/p01s04-usmi.html
the incoherent liberal comment comes from using expressions
like "illegal war" and the general tone of the comment.
it's the article which raises the issue of whether
the killed mercenaries were "wronged" and the OP appears
to be in sympathy with that position. cigarette companies
have fave funded bogus science and engaged in sleazy
advertizing but i have little sympathy for people suing
them.
\_ FTA: "Addicott, a retired Special Forces officer, estimates that the
number of civilian contractors in Iraq surpassed 100,000 this year.
'That takes into account not only people specifically hired to
provide armed security, but also those in transportation,
construction, food services, housing, laundry etc. Americans and
non-Americans.'"
Your claim of 100,000 "mercenaries" is exaggerated. Or do you call
people doing laundry "mercenaries"?
\_ Not the original poster, but "war" is not supposed to be a
business opportunity. It is the weight of the state brought
to bear to protect itself or its interests. Privatizing war
takes actions outside the sphere of influence of the state,
meaning the state responsible for war and all its fallout
cannot control the actors. This is dangerous for stability,
not to mention morality. This is EXACTLY what Eisenhower
warned us about. "100k mercenaries" is an exaggeration in
terms, not in numbers. Private interests fighting our wars
for profit is reprehensible.
\_ You're an idiot. Everything is a business opportunity. And
yes, it is an exaggeration of numbers if you're calling landry
workers part of 100,000 "mercenaries".
\_ You're an amoral fool who's blind to history and social
responsibility. Nice to know you.
\_ So I'm the one blind to history even though every war in
the past shows people moving in to make money AND help
people? You're quite a piece of work.
\_ I didn't say it doesn't and hasn't happened. I'm
saying it's wrong. Read up on Truman.
\_ Okay, so I'm *not* blind to history? Good. Now,
you need to understand that economic opportunity
!= bad.
\_ When it's based upon war, I posit that it is.
I posit that death is not a commodity that we
as a people should be proud to traffick in.
\_ So arms manufacturers shouldn't make any
money? Laundary soap shouldn't be sold at a
profit? Hell, first aid kits should be
free? What planet do you live on again?
\_ How the fuck do you imbeciles make the
leap from what I said to "should be free"
You're not worth bothering with.
\_ You missed the questions about selling
things for profit. Answer those if
you object to "for free".
\_ good luck with your crusade!
\_ People don't do things for free. Many American soldiers
especially those from low income or low education or
low opportunity - are in the army to improve their
lot in life. They're as mercenary as the contractors.
They're just willing to work for less.
\_ Do you really want to let this comment stay posted?
Do you know how stupid you sound?
\_ No wonder American GIs commit crimes like raping
schoolgirls in Japan. They are just low people at
their jobs.
\- you may wish to read the chalmers johnson
book sorrow of empire and blowback he is
a fmr ucb prof who went a little nuts.
see wall archive etc ok tnx --psb
\_ I guess you saw Jarhead |
| 5/26 |
|
| csua.org/u/eev -> news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051222/ts_nm/iraq_usa_contractors_dc Lawyers and military experts say the case highlights legal gray zones, a lack of regulation and little oversight of a booming global industry bel ieved to bring in more than $150 billion annually. Civilian military con tractors now perform scores of functions once restricted to regular troo ps, and a trend toward "privatizing war" has been accelerating steadily. All four had military experience and signed contracts assuming all risk s and waiving their right to sue. The suit against Blackwater says the company broke explicit terms of its contract with the men by sending them to escort a food convoy in unarmor ed cars, without heavy machine guns, proper briefings, advance notice or pre-mission reconnaissance, in teams that were understaffed and lacked even a map. "Sending four men out on the security mission instead of the required six essentially took away the team's ability to defend itself," the suit sa ys. the insurgents were l iterally able to walk up behind the vehicles and open fire upon them at close range." Alleging wrongful death and fraud, the suit is the first of its kind in t he US The way it is resolved, experts say, could have major implicatio ns for the future of military contracting and result in more rules and r egulations. Blackwater, which declines comment on the suit, filed motions this week t o have the case moved to a federal court from a state court in North Car olina where it originated in January. Blackwater's headquarters are in M oycock, North Carolina. Marc Miles, an attorney for the families, said he expected the suit to co me to trial next year. WILD WEST "This is an important case," said Jeffrey Addicott, director of the Cente r for Terrorism Law at St. "While the volume of contractors pouring into Iraq has been enormous, there has bee n very little effort at regulation or standardizing training. Addicott, a retired Special Forces officer, estimates that the number of civilian contractors in Iraq surpassed 100,000 this year. "That takes in to account not only people specifically hired to provide armed security, but also those in transportation, construction, food services, housing, laundry etc. Department of Defense , the Pentagon does not have a precise tally of either. The estimate of c ontractors it gives - around 20,000 - dates back to a remark by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld almost two years ago. Such estimates cover what is known as "arms-bearing contractors" who work for firms including Blackwater, Triple Canopy, Aegis Defense Services a nd Military Professional Resources Incorporated (MPRI) - all run by reti red military officers. There are about 173,000 US and allied troops now in Iraq, led by the Un ited States with 155,000. ARMY DEPENDS ON CIVILIAN CONTRACTORS US armed forces can no longer function without civilian contractors, ne ither in combat nor in the post-combat stability and reconstruction oper ations that the Pentagon last month declared a "core mission," experts s ay. According to Peter Singer of Washington's Brookings Institution, private companies that sell warfare-linked services to governments represent "th e corporate evolution of the age-old profession of mercenaries." The firms involved bristle at the term "mercenary," which evokes images o f white guns-for-hire working for African dictators and staging coups an d countercoups on behalf of the highest bidder. Civilian contractors say they provide protection and support personnel ra ther than war fighters, but the line is often thin. But while "mercenary" has been replaced by "private military firms" or "p rivate military companies" - PMFs or PMCs -- there is no doubt that the driving force is money. In 1990, revenues from the ir activities were estimated at around $55 billion, a sum thought to hav e tripled by this year. OUTSOURCING The government's rationale for outsourcing military services is that it s aves cost and increases flexibility - similar to corporations which cut their work forces then outsource functions to contractors working withou t health or pension benefits. There are no recent studies, however, on the long-term cost benefit of re placing regular troops with contractors. The downsizing of the US armed forces has been substantial and relentle ss - from 21 million when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 and the Col d War ended to 14 million today. One tricky consequence is the free-market competition between the militar y and the private sector for people who have been trained - often at con siderable cost - by the military. PMFs pay up to 10 times more than the military for very similar functions. Special Forces expertise is in particular demand, and operators can make more than $200,000 a year, a good part of it not subject to US income taxes. To counter the lure of private contractors, the army has begun to offer r e-enlistment bonuses of $150,000 for special forces soldiers who agree t o stay on an additional six years. An Iraqi man looks at one of two vehicles on fire after an attack by insurgents in the town of Falluja that killed four civilian contractors March 31, 2004. An unprecedented lawsuit stemming from the gruesome kill ing of four American civilians in Iraq is slowly making its way through the US legal system, closely watched by companies estimated to field u p to 100,000 contractors alongside the US military. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. |
| www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-09/01/content_370757.htm A photo published on an Islamic groups' website August 31, 2004, showing what appears to be men lying shot in a pit. A militant Iraqi group said it had killed 12 Nepali hostages and showed pictures of one being behead ed and others being shot dead, the worst mass killing of captives since a wave of kidnappings erupted in April. If confirmed, it would raise the number of foreign workers known to have been slain by extremists to at least 22 in a terror campaign aimed at fo rcing foreign troops and contract workers out of the country.. Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi promised retribution. "The only solution with this unjust group is to make them face justice," he angril y told the Arab-language Al-Arabiya television station. said Jit Bahadur Khadka, the father of one of t hose reportedly killed, 19-year-old Ramesh Khadka. In another hostage crisis, French officials held talks in Paris and aroun d the Arab world in hopes of saving the lives of two journalists held by other insurgents in Iraq. The kidnappers set a Wednesday deadline for F rance rescind its ban on Muslim head scarves in French schools, a demand France has said it won't meet. But it wasn't immediately clear when the deadline expired. Some officials thought Wednesday morning, but the head of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, said his group had been told the deadline was Wednesday night. Guerrillas in Iraq have taken more than 100 foreigners hostage in recent months, often demanding that their home countries withdraw troops from t he US-led coalition or pull out their citizens doing civilian work. So me have demanded that a hostage's employer promise to halt all business here. Nepal, which has no troops in Iraq, has long banned its citizens from wor king in Iraq because of security concerns. However, many people from the poor Asian nation take jobs abroad, and 17,000 Nepalese are believed to have slipped into Iraq, with many working as armed security guards for foreign contractors. "We strongly condemn the terrorist act and urge the international communi ty to speak against this terrorist act," Nepalese Foreign Minister Praka sh Sharan Mahat said after an emergency Cabinet meeting held in Katmandu amid criticism the government did not do enough to save the men. In Nepal's capital, Katmandu, thousands of protesters ransacked a mosque and clashed with police Wednesday to protest the killing of the Nepalese hostages. Demonstrators rallied across Katmandu, blaming the government for not doing enough to secure the hostages release. Elsewhere, efforts to broker a truce between militants loyal to rebel Shi ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the government appeared to bear fruit Tue sday. Iraqi police fanned out without incident through the Baghdad slum of Sadr City, which had been the scene of fierce clashes between al-Sadr loyalists and US troops in recent weeks. Allawi told tribal leaders from Sadr City that the government had allocat ed $115 million to improve public services in the district, including wa ter, electricity and sewage. "The resumption and the stability of life in your city and in the whole o f Iraq is a very important issue," Allawi said. Picture from the Islamist Army of Ansar al-Sunna website shows the bodies of Nepalese men. Fears mounted for two French journalists held hostage by Islamic militants in Iraq as Nepal was plunged into mourning by repor ts 12 of its citizens were brutally murdered by their kidnappers. Meanwhile, the second-ranking US diplomat in Iraq, James Jeffrey, met w ith Gov. Adnan al-Zurufi in the holy city of Najaf, the center of a thre e-week uprising by al-Sadr followers that ended Friday. Jeffrey went to assess the "immediate needs of the city" and examine ways to rebuild it. The 12 Nepalese hostages, who had been sent by a Jordanian firm to do con struction work in Iraq, disappeared Aug. The next day, a Web statement from the little known Ansar al-Sunna Army c laimed to be holding them and demanded Nepal stop sending its workers he re. The video Tuesday showed a masked man in desert camouflage apparently sli tting the throat of a blindfolded man lying on the ground. The masked man then showed the sever ed head to the camera before throwing it in the dirt and later resting i t on the victim's chest. Other footage showed a militant with an assault rifle killing the other 1 1 men, who were lying face down on the ground, with a series of shots in to their heads and backs. Previously, insurgents killed hostages in ones, and perhaps twos, as part of their campaign to force foreign troops and contract workers out of the country. "America today has used all its force, as well as the help of others, to fight Islam under the so-called war on terror, which is nothing but a vi cious crusade against Muslims," a statement on the Web site signed Ansar al-Sunna Army said. The group also threatened anyone else working with US forces in Iraq, s aying executions would befall "every agent, traitor and spy." Mahat, the Nepalese foreign minister, said his government would help the families "and take action against the people who sent them illegally to this dangerous area for work." The Muslim Scholars Association, an influential Sunni Muslim group believ ed to have links to insurgents, condemned the claimed mass killing, sayi ng such acts did not help Iraq. "We believe most of them were simple-minded and tempted to come to Iraq," Mohammed Bashar al-Faidi, a spokesman for the group, said of the Nepale se. "We wished they could have been released by the kidnappers so that t hey could have become messengers for their brothers to warn them not to come to Iraq." |
| www.csmonitor.com/2004/1018/p01s04-usmi.html Ann Scott Tyson | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor WASHINGTON Army commanders moved gingerly on Sunday to address a rare a nd serious case of a US military unit defying orders in a combat zone, s eeking to check a disciplinary breakdown while addressing safety concern s common among troops tested daily in ambushes on the roads of Iraq. Eighteen soldiers of a South Carolina Reserve unit are under formal inves tigation, five of whom have been suspended from duty and temporarily rea ssigned to other units, for allegedly refusing a risky mission to delive r fuel last week, according to military officials. Permission to reprint/republish The incident, unfolding amid an escalation of violence and troop deaths a nd following other disciplinary crises such as the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, comes at a sensitive political juncture as the war in Iraq continues to dominate the US presidential campaign. Above all, the case casts a stark light on problems faced by US ground tr oops in Iraq: Shortages of armored protection, overtaxed National Guard and Reserve units, and increasingly sophisticated attacks by insurgents on supply convoys manned by logistics soldiers with relatively little co mbat training. It also underscores the danger for the military that such conditions will produce troubling, if isolated, breakdowns in discipline. In many respe cts, it's a classic illustration of the delicate line commanders must wa lk between enforcing order necessary to accomplish the mission while min imizing risks to soldiers' lives. "This bears all the indications of a unit that has some discipline proble ms or morale or leadership problems" says a senior Army lawyer on condit ion of anonymity. "There's a systemic problem, and you don't want to sho w everyone in theater a harsh response, because that could have a devast ating impact." How US commanders handle the case, which has captured headlines at home a nd abroad in recent days, "will set a tone throughout the entire unit" a s soldiers gauge whether their comrades are treated fairly, says Jeff Mc Causland, former dean of the US Army War College and now director of the Leadership in Conflict Initiative at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa. Still, in this case, military lawyers say, some of the soldiers, all from the South Carolina Army Reserves' 343rd Quartermaster Company, appear t o have clearly crossed a line. "This doesn't even come close to being an illegal order." It was one of the largest-scale incidents he recalled of a unit refusing to obey orders in wartime since 1990, when 67 soldiers from the Louisian a National Guard's 256th Infantry Brigade went AWOL from Fort Hood, Texa s, during preparations for deployment to the Persian Gulf. Under militar y law, soldiers who willfully disobey lawful orders of superior officers in wartime can face maximum penalties of court martial and death. Still, the military has acknowledged that some of the soldiers who refuse d to man a fuel convoy from Tallil to Taji south of Baghdad on Oct. Indeed, senior commanders have ordered the entire 120-man 343rd Quartermaster Company t o "stand down" to conduct maintenance and retraining. Cathy Wilkinson of the 13th Corps Support Command, which oversees the company. "The command is evaluating which vehicles require armoring consisting of steel plat es which have been designed, fabricated, and installed by the 13th COSCO M soldiers and will add armor to those vehicles as well as do a period of retraining and recertification on their mission," she said via e-mail . James Chambers, COSCOM commander, said the investigation would last 10 to 14 days. He denied assertions reported by families of 343rd soldiers that the convoy in question carried contaminated fuel or would have lacked armed escort. He said all soldiers have adequate body armor and have trained in convoy live fire exercises, and military mechanics a re fitting steel plating on supply trucks. "I can't think of anything we 're not doing now," he told a Baghdad press conference. Yet a soldier with the 343rd based in Rock Hill, SC, told the Monitor t hat none of the unit's vehicles - including tractor trailers, tankers, a nd Humvees - had armor or mounted guns when the unit deployed to Iraq la st December. Apart from a 21/2-month predeployment course, the soldiers' training had focused on skills such as testing fuel for contamination a nd running water-purification systems, rather than combat tasks, he said . James Helmly says the Army is upgrading reser ve forces equipment and increase training on "warrior skills" such as ma rksmanship, battle drills, and land navigation as they face new dangers in higher numbers in Iraq where front lines do not exist. The Army is drawing heavily on Reserve forces, which now make up 40 perce nt of the troops in Iraq and the overwhelming majority of logistics sold iers. Crisscrossing Iraq daily on routes plagued with road bombs and amb ushes, they face dangers that approach those of GIs. Some 169 Army Natio nal Guard and Reserve soldiers have died in Iraq, with nearly 80 percent killed by hostile fire - a figure slightly higher than for active duty. In Iraq, COSCOM officials say their 15,000 soldiers - 90 percent of whom are Guard and Reserve - train regularly on reacting to ambushes and also have armored escort for all convoys. "They would not have gone out the gate without the proper escort ... dedicated assets that provide force p rotection," says Lt. Sue Davidson, commander of COSCOM's 49th Trans portation Battalion. Each day, the convoys haul more than 1 million gall ons of fuel, 110,000 cases of bottled water, and 24,000 rounds of ammuni tion. Yet the dangers are constant, with between five and 20 insurgent ambushes with such weapons as road bombs, small arms, and rockets daily. "We hav e more problems from interdiction by the enemy than by breakdowns," Colo nel Davidson says, adding that she must often redirect convoys or halt t hem at bases. |