War
on terror
War
contractors ready for battle against Islamic State
CQ Roll Call
(Tribune News Service)
Published: December 1, 2014
|
§
|
Two Ugandan nationals from Triple Canopy Security
Systems stand guard outside one of the walk-in gates for Forward Operating Base
Kalsu in Babel, Iraq, Jan. 21, 2011. Last summer, Triple Canopy joined forces
with rival Academi as part of Constellis Holdings.
DOD
President Barack Obama has stressed that the U.S.-led coalition fight
against the Islamic State can be won without “boots on the ground.” But it
depends on who’s wearing the boots.
Thousands of private security contractors, who played critical,
below-the-radar and at times controversial roles in the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, are being asked to consider joining this latest battle against
Islamic extremists in Iraq and Syria and possibly elsewhere in the Middle East.
What specific jobs they will fill, and which departments or countries will be
paying for their services, remains to be seen. But the demand for their considerable
and varied expertise is expected to be high, and that’s welcome news for both
the contracting companies and politicians, according to policy advisers and
industry experts.
“I think Obama’s promise not to send ground troops to Iraq and Syria,
combined with the threat there, incentivizes the administration to turn to
contractors because there are such fewer political risks,” says George
Washington University law professor Laura A. Dickinson, author of “Outsourcing
War and Peace: Preserving Public Values in a World of Privatized Foreign
Affairs.”
“Private security contractors can’t engage in combat, but they can
oversee training and logistics and can provide security,” Dickinson says. “I
recently saw a posting looking for companies interested in constructing a
network of satellite stations. So there will be many opportunities to be
involved.”
And that’s a good thing for a private industry that has watched with
dismay over the last couple of years as the U.S. government has extricated
itself from Iraq and, soon, Afghanistan.
“The private-sector industry views ISIS as a potential marketplace,”
says Sean McFate, a professor at the National Defense University and Georgetown
University’s School of Foreign Service and author of “The Modern Mercenary:
Private Armies and What They Mean for World Order.” “My guess would be that
private contractors are eagerly wandering the halls of K Street and Pentagon
City, offering their services. There’s blood in the water.”
During the height of the U.S. military “surge” in Iraq in 2007, more
than 180,000 private contractors were stationed throughout the region,
according to Peter Singer, a military strategist and senior fellow at the New
America Foundation.
“It was greater than a 1:1 ratio to U.S. forces — a lot like parallel troops,”
Singer says. “The number goes down as U.S. forces shrink, but the bottom line
is they didn’t go away. They’ve just shifted to different roles — from analysts
to translators and security guards to training the Iraqi Air Force…”
No comments:
Post a Comment