Contractors in Iraq being disarmed
Civilian Contractors Face Hardships in Iraq, Without the Honor
Thursday , March 29, 2007
By Lt. Col. Oliver North
Foxnews
Washington, D.C. - On March 27, the solons of the U.S. Senate voted to assure defeat in Iraq by setting a "date certain" - one year from now - for the withdrawal of U.S. forces.
As the 50-48 vote was being tallied, 15 British sailors and Royal Marines were being held hostage somewhere in Iran. While the Barons of Bombast were rushing to the microphones to crow about "repudiating this president's failed strategy," U.S. aircraft from two carrier battle groups were screaming into the air over the Persian Gulf. And in a little noticed footnote that same afternoon, the newswires from Baghdad reported that "a U.S. soldier and a civilian contractor had been killed inside the 'Green Zone' in Baghdad."
In keeping with tradition, the American soldier's next of kin will be notified by his service, his body will be escorted home on an "Angel Flight" and at his funeral, a military honor guard will solemnly present his family with a carefully folded American flag and a Purple Heart Medal on which the profile of George Washington appears. The U.S. civilian contractor - killed by the same "indirect fire" as the U.S. soldier - will be accorded none of these courtesies. She is simply a statistic: the 161st American civilian contractor killed in Iraq since 2003. When I called a friend in Iraq to ask about the circumstances, I was told, "Who cares about the civilian? We're just road kill."
The disparity in how these two American casualties are treated in death may be stark - but it's nothing new. Civilian contractors have served beside - and been treated differently than - the U.S. military since the American Revolution. From 1775 when he arrived in Boston to assume command of the Continental Army, George Washington depended on civilian contractors to provide food, weapons, ammunition, transport, armories, engineering, construction, clothing and medical assistance for his troops. Though many of these civilians shared the same hardships and privations as the troops they supported - they were more often criticized than honored by our government.
Modern warfare has made civilian contractors even more essential to our military - and placed them at higher risk. Three weeks after Pearl Harbor, nearly 100 American civilian construction contractors were killed and wounded standing shoulder-to-shoulder with U.S. Marines and sailors defending Wake Island. When the tiny garrison was overwhelmed on 23 December 1941, more than 1,000 contractors became prisoners of the Rising Sun and scores were subsequently worked to death and massacred by their captors. None of those who died received so much as a Purple Heart.
By the time I arrived in Vietnam in 1968, tens of thousands of American civilians were backing our efforts on the battlefield. My tiny platoon outpost overlooking Khe Sanh had a half-dozen American civilians manning sophisticated communications and detection equipment. At Con Thien, our Infantry Battalion was supported by U.S. civilian "tech reps" who maintained and operated fire control radars, ran generators and repaired everything from sensors to heavy equipment. One of the most famous photographs of the Vietnam War's ignominious end was an American civilian contractor's UH-1 "Huey" helicopter evacuating desperate Vietnamese refugees from the top of 22 Gia Long Street, a half mile from the U.S. Embassy.
Today's globe-spanning War on Terror - and a much smaller U.S. military to fight it - place even greater burdens on civilian contractors. In Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait, more than 350 U.S. companies - and nearly 100,000 American civilians are directly engaged in supporting U.S. and Coalition efforts. In Iraq, civilian contractors man and protect more than 900 convoys a month delivering food, water, clothing, fuel, weapons, ammunition and equipment to the new Iraqi police and army. Nearly all major maintenance is performed by civilian contractors - including that for U.S. forces.
On each of my eight trips to Iraq reporting on U.S. combat units for FOX News, I have eaten food prepared by these civilian contractors, bathed in and drank the water they supplied, ridden in vehicles they had armored, and communicated with equipment they had installed. In northern Iraq, I documented American contractors destroying millions of tons of Saddam's ordnance so that it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands. In Fallujah, I saw the bridge where the mutilated bodies of four civilian contractors were hung by Al Qaeda in March 2004. And on every trip I've seen well-armed civilians from private security companies - called PSCs - protecting diplomats, sensitive installations, oil pipelines, news bureaus, Iraqi government officials, even senior U.S. military officers.
Though General Petraeus testified at his confirmation hearing on 23 January 2007 that he was "secured by contract security in my last tour there," and described the PSCs as essential to his strategy for victory, he appears to have changed his mind. Last week, the Maliki-government issued regulations - enforced by the U.S. military - stripping weapons from all civilian contractors unless they have a new permit issued by the Ministry of the Interior (MOI). The "Catch-22" in all of this is that the MOI has yet to issue any new permits.
Lawrence T. Peter, Director of the Private Security Association of Iraq, says that the new regulation "disarms virtually all PSC personnel not working directly for the U.S. government and prevents any coalition civilian traveling through Baghdad from legally carrying a weapon." He added, "we now have American troops disarming American civilians. It just got a whole lot more dangerous to be a reporter, a reconstruction worker or a coalition diplomat in Iraq. The terrorists must love this."
Road kill, anyone?
Thursday , March 29, 2007
By Lt. Col. Oliver North
Foxnews
Washington, D.C. - On March 27, the solons of the U.S. Senate voted to assure defeat in Iraq by setting a "date certain" - one year from now - for the withdrawal of U.S. forces.
As the 50-48 vote was being tallied, 15 British sailors and Royal Marines were being held hostage somewhere in Iran. While the Barons of Bombast were rushing to the microphones to crow about "repudiating this president's failed strategy," U.S. aircraft from two carrier battle groups were screaming into the air over the Persian Gulf. And in a little noticed footnote that same afternoon, the newswires from Baghdad reported that "a U.S. soldier and a civilian contractor had been killed inside the 'Green Zone' in Baghdad."
In keeping with tradition, the American soldier's next of kin will be notified by his service, his body will be escorted home on an "Angel Flight" and at his funeral, a military honor guard will solemnly present his family with a carefully folded American flag and a Purple Heart Medal on which the profile of George Washington appears. The U.S. civilian contractor - killed by the same "indirect fire" as the U.S. soldier - will be accorded none of these courtesies. She is simply a statistic: the 161st American civilian contractor killed in Iraq since 2003. When I called a friend in Iraq to ask about the circumstances, I was told, "Who cares about the civilian? We're just road kill."
The disparity in how these two American casualties are treated in death may be stark - but it's nothing new. Civilian contractors have served beside - and been treated differently than - the U.S. military since the American Revolution. From 1775 when he arrived in Boston to assume command of the Continental Army, George Washington depended on civilian contractors to provide food, weapons, ammunition, transport, armories, engineering, construction, clothing and medical assistance for his troops. Though many of these civilians shared the same hardships and privations as the troops they supported - they were more often criticized than honored by our government.
Modern warfare has made civilian contractors even more essential to our military - and placed them at higher risk. Three weeks after Pearl Harbor, nearly 100 American civilian construction contractors were killed and wounded standing shoulder-to-shoulder with U.S. Marines and sailors defending Wake Island. When the tiny garrison was overwhelmed on 23 December 1941, more than 1,000 contractors became prisoners of the Rising Sun and scores were subsequently worked to death and massacred by their captors. None of those who died received so much as a Purple Heart.
By the time I arrived in Vietnam in 1968, tens of thousands of American civilians were backing our efforts on the battlefield. My tiny platoon outpost overlooking Khe Sanh had a half-dozen American civilians manning sophisticated communications and detection equipment. At Con Thien, our Infantry Battalion was supported by U.S. civilian "tech reps" who maintained and operated fire control radars, ran generators and repaired everything from sensors to heavy equipment. One of the most famous photographs of the Vietnam War's ignominious end was an American civilian contractor's UH-1 "Huey" helicopter evacuating desperate Vietnamese refugees from the top of 22 Gia Long Street, a half mile from the U.S. Embassy.
Today's globe-spanning War on Terror - and a much smaller U.S. military to fight it - place even greater burdens on civilian contractors. In Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait, more than 350 U.S. companies - and nearly 100,000 American civilians are directly engaged in supporting U.S. and Coalition efforts. In Iraq, civilian contractors man and protect more than 900 convoys a month delivering food, water, clothing, fuel, weapons, ammunition and equipment to the new Iraqi police and army. Nearly all major maintenance is performed by civilian contractors - including that for U.S. forces.
On each of my eight trips to Iraq reporting on U.S. combat units for FOX News, I have eaten food prepared by these civilian contractors, bathed in and drank the water they supplied, ridden in vehicles they had armored, and communicated with equipment they had installed. In northern Iraq, I documented American contractors destroying millions of tons of Saddam's ordnance so that it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands. In Fallujah, I saw the bridge where the mutilated bodies of four civilian contractors were hung by Al Qaeda in March 2004. And on every trip I've seen well-armed civilians from private security companies - called PSCs - protecting diplomats, sensitive installations, oil pipelines, news bureaus, Iraqi government officials, even senior U.S. military officers.
Though General Petraeus testified at his confirmation hearing on 23 January 2007 that he was "secured by contract security in my last tour there," and described the PSCs as essential to his strategy for victory, he appears to have changed his mind. Last week, the Maliki-government issued regulations - enforced by the U.S. military - stripping weapons from all civilian contractors unless they have a new permit issued by the Ministry of the Interior (MOI). The "Catch-22" in all of this is that the MOI has yet to issue any new permits.
Lawrence T. Peter, Director of the Private Security Association of Iraq, says that the new regulation "disarms virtually all PSC personnel not working directly for the U.S. government and prevents any coalition civilian traveling through Baghdad from legally carrying a weapon." He added, "we now have American troops disarming American civilians. It just got a whole lot more dangerous to be a reporter, a reconstruction worker or a coalition diplomat in Iraq. The terrorists must love this."
Road kill, anyone?
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I bet Crescent Security is just LOVING these days... During my time there, the IPs (Iraqi Police) "ambushed" a couple of Crescent Security trucks and after about 30 or 40 minutes confiscated their weapons and let them go. The Crescent Security guys were a hair's width away from opening fire on the IPs because they were wrongfully accusing CSG (Crescent Security Group) for trafficking illegal weapons into and out of Iraq. They didn't get their weapons back until almost a week later. 0 -
Too bad.
These are mercenaries, who are being paid FAR more than our military people, and if they don't like the risks they can quit and go home - unlike our underpaid troops.
I'd be in favor of letting them go armed, if they would agree to the same conditions as our Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and yes, even Airmen.
Doug0 -
they arent mercenaries 0 -
The pay is about $200,000 a year for a plumber in Afghanistan. 
0 -
$200,000 a year ... whoa, that is a lot of green! Maybe that is why they take th risk for a while. But let's do treat them right. 0 -
I think it's disgusting that these mercenaries get paid four or five times what an Army PFC does to do the exact same job. If our government can pay these guys six-figures a year to stand around and guard a building or some dignitaries, then why not just pay our soldiers more? That would boost recruitment and then we wouldn't NEED these private security contractors. 0 -
Awww.... you mean the poor widdle mercenaries won't get to go to Iwaq and play soldiers? Awwww.... poor baby!
GOOD!
Men and women are dying over there for pennies a day and these profiteering jackasses aren't making things any better.
The right to bear arms applies to Americans in America - you wanna shoot the locals overseas, sign up, put on a uniform, and swear the oath.
You want to earn the big bucks? Not running around with a gun is a risk you're gonna have to take.0 -
quote:Originally posted by warriorsfan
I think it's disgusting that these mercenaries get paid four or five times what an Army PFC does to do the exact same job. If our government can pay these guys six-figures a year to stand around and guard a building or some dignitaries, then why not just pay our soldiers more? That would boost recruitment and then we wouldn't NEED these private security contractors.
Why does our gov't hire these contractors who can make a profit while paying their operatives several times what our troops get? I agree, why not just dump the contractors and bump the military salary?0 -
Is there any military service that is able to operate without civilian
employees? Which is cheaper a person in uniform for whom you train,
feed, clothe, house, provide dental/medical treatment, have support
in place for their dependents, and give them 30 days leave a year and
continue to pay them when they are sick? Or, hire a mercenary who
only gets a paycheck and any support given by his company. Wasn't a
large part of Rome's armies mercenary because the citizens of Rome
were more worried about their private lives than the life of their
country? If this war in Iraq is so important why hasen't President
Bush demanded the draft be reactivated? To me, this issue of mercen-
aries has a deeper meaning. How healthy is the soul of our country?0 -
quote:Originally posted by Cameroon
Is there any military service that is able to operate without civilian
employees?
If there was any, you'd be describing the Marines. [Not one, but it's gonna be said ..]0 -
The US Military has a program for it's Civil Service employees.....they label them "Emergency Essential" and they can wear BDU's, carry issued firearms, and get all the same training the Active Duty get. These folks are not entitled to be members of a Union and do whatever they are told and go wherever they are needed.
Why won't the Pentagon go use them instead of Contractors?......Because retired military officers and corporate America started up FOR PROFIT corporations to get mercenaries into the war money...to make the Defense Contractor millions.
If I was a Defense Contractor there isn't a soul that would disarm me in Iraq. Kill as many as you can before they git you.
On a funnier note....I heard a story about the Army Airborne getting off a plane on a airforce base and crossing the red line and walking around the flightline....where you ain't supposed to walk. The AF cops ran in and had the Army Airborne on the ground with guns to their heads.
We are at war with ourselves more than we are at war with our enemies. Sad but true.0 -
There are very few instances where civil service employees are authorized to carry weapons in theatre. As civilians they are "non-combatants", place a weapon in their hands and now they're illegal combatants and subject to Iraqi law. The security contractors there are not "legally" (used very loosely) connected with US Armed Forces and are essentially, mercinaries.
The pay differences are astounding. Our AD troops may get combat pay and family seps but this pales in comparison to what civil service get paid. We are working 12-16 hour days, 7 days a week for 179 days. The average gross for the 6 months is ~$100k. They won't let us stay over 179 days continuous because then we would be tax exempt. Our AD troops make what, $18K in that same 6 months, maybe??
The security contractors are being paid $160K + a year and are tax exempt to boot.0 -
Why blame the contractors they're not the ones hiring themselves. If the citizens in this country don't want them there then don't let the government hire them. Otherwise they're doing a duty there just like everyone else.
The contractors are not going to come back home and go to college for free either so the regular GI is making more than pennies he's there for the benefits just like the other guys are there for the money. If you don't believe that then take away all their benefits and see how many people join up just out of their patriotic duty.
Smitty0 -
I work at a government agency that uses THOUSANDS of contractors, including many of them that are overseas. The agency would NOT be able to function without them. Yes, they get paid a lot more than government employees but many of them have skills that are not available to us otherwise, such as truck drivers. You really want the gov to hire thousands of truck drivers and make them gov employees with total union protection? What do we do with them when they are not needed anymore? And many of these contractors have advanced skills in languages and intell analysis and combat arms from their time in the military, you just can't find anyone else with those types of skills. As for sending gov employees over, you can't order them to go if they were not originally hired for overseas work. And even the ones that were hired for overseas, many won't go to a combat zone so they just resign and get US based contracting jobs. Believe me it has been tried and they quit. These gov employees are graduates of some of the best universities in the country, if they wanted to go to a combat zone they would have become military officers, not civilian government employees. And they are used to their office 9-5 jobs wearing suits and dresses and getting home to take the kids to soccer practice. You really think they are going to go to the sandbox? NOPE. And you can't ORDER contractors overseas, they have to want to go. So you pay them a bunch of money to get them to go. Mercenaries? Maybe, but they are needed badly we simply can't function without them. 0 -
there's good reason,
I forget where I read about teh incident, probably right here on GB,
but a while ago some of these mercenaries got drunk and started driving around in their little SUV shooting automatic weapons at anyone and everyone.
Until they shot at US Marines and Iraqi trainees, who promptly caught the jerks and showed them the error of their ways (I can only assume in typical USMC style [:D])0 -
quote:Originally posted by scrumpyjack
There are very few instances where civil service employees are authorized to carry weapons in theatre. As civilians they are "non-combatants", place a weapon in their hands and now they're illegal combatants and subject to Iraqi law.
Read this link:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Dec1996/n12041996_9612047.html
DOD also pushed for a overhaul in it's Civilian Personnel System....NSPS. Anyone in the new system that refuses to deploy will be fired. They can hire and fire as fast as Michael Jackson picks up little boys now.
http://www.govexec.com/mailbagDetails.cfm?aid=35621
www.cpms.osd.mil/gwot/osd.asp0 -
ObiWan - I fall under the new NSPS system. The only things that
changed is my rating code, new evaluation process, and pay based on
evaluations rather than time in grade as under the old system. The one
link you have states a person designated as E.E must agree to that
status to be sent overseas. Maybe some of the areas are more strict
but not much has really changed since our command fell under NSPS.0 -
So... I guess they are mercenaries.
Doug0 -
For those of us that actually work a full day, NSPS changes nothing. I'm an AFGE member but I'm sorry, there are many good things that come with NSPS. John Gage and the others are brainwashing the blind followers on NSPS. When talking with a member from another DOD site recently, I was asked how many people worked at my installation. My response was, "About 10%". NSPS would create a means to get rid of some of the dead weight so that we could really support our Warfighters and actually make schedules.
If I become a deployable asset after our spiral, so be it. I've willingly volunteered as it is. And FWIW, the theatre commander has not authorized DOD civilians to carry weapons! You can be trained all you want, you will NOT be issued any weapon when you process through CDC. Blackhawk flights into FOBs in Fallujah, Tikrit, etc. for emergency repairs, the briefing was that we were not allowed to handle any weapons unless we were under direct attack, enemy inside the wire and the soldier next to us got hit; then we could pick up his weapon and return fire.0 -
Okay, this makes me sick. Ollie has turned into the rankest form of politician there is. "Civilian contractors are more important now than ever!" Taking cues from his masters at KBR is he?
If a soldier is killed, he or she is sent home with all due honors because they died in the course of their duty. If a contractor died, they get sent home as luggage because they died in the course of a job - one they were getting paid a heck of a lot more to do than our men and women in uniform.
They are mercenaries and truth be told I don't care what happens to them. If you can't afford to get killed, don't go to Iraq - it's that simple. Only soldiers don't have that choice and that's why they get the respect these feeble contractors think they are due.0 -
Ba - I couldn't have said it better myself.
Well... maybe a little better.
Doug0 -
Mercenaries, plain and simple.....
They do not follow a flag, merely the money.
If they want purple hearts and military funerals, they should call a recruiter0 -
I am sorry to anyone here who is or whose loved ones are contractors in Iraq, but I just cannot help but feel sick to my stomach when I hear them whine about the hardships they are facing and the disrespect they have to endure when they are raking in $100,000 or more, TAX FREE, while the men and women in uniform, who had to follow orders and deploy (often at great personal hardship) are earning less than half. 0 -
Just as with people in general, cars, guns, religions, unions, etc. some contractors are good and some are bad. I myself have sympathy for the good ones. It has always been true that if you are doing a dangerous job, or working in a dangerous place, the only way you will get the respect and recognition of the government and of the public is if you are receiving a government check as a government employee.
Just look at the local news or even the television show America's Most Wanted. Each week AMW salutes public safety people who have died while working. All you ever see is people who are government employees. Yet in any year there are people who are working in the private sector or working for the government as contactors while working to protect the public that are seriously hurt or killed. But those people wll never, ever get any respect, awards, lavish public funerals, llifetime pensions for their family or anything else other that getting paid only for the hours they work.
That is not totally fair and it would not take much effort to show some apprecation of the contractors who take risks to help the public or the military.0 -
quote:Originally posted by Ba Sardo
Okay, this makes me sick. Ollie has turned into the rankest form of politician there is. "Civilian contractors are more important now than ever!" Taking cues from his masters at KBR is he?
If a soldier is killed, he or she is sent home with all due honors because they died in the course of their duty. If a contractor died, they get sent home as luggage because they died in the course of a job - one they were getting paid a heck of a lot more to do than our men and women in uniform.
They are mercenaries and truth be told I don't care what happens to them. If you can't afford to get killed, don't go to Iraq - it's that simple. Only soldiers don't have that choice and that's why they get the respect these feeble contractors think they are due.
And a reporter from ABC gets treated above them all...0 -
tr - They are making 4 or 5 times what the "boots on the ground" GI does.
I think maybe they should put a little aside for retirement and/or a big funeral.
How did you feel about the mercenaries in Africa ??
Not trying to start a fight, I'm just interested on what makes you see it that way??
Doug0 -
quote:Originally posted by Doug Wilson
tr - They are making 4 or 5 times what the "boots on the ground" GI does.
there are examples all across America of some groups of people making more money than other groups that do similar work. In this case, one group chose to join the military knowning full well in advance what the pay was. the other group chose to be contractors.
I think maybe they should put a little aside for retirement and/or a big funeral.some of them probably have
How did you feel about the mercenaries in Africa ?? I have given no thought to them, so no opinion
Not trying to start a fight, I'm just interested on what makes you see it that way?? there is no fighting, but thanks for responding and asking about my thoughts.
Doug
When ANY of us are looking for a job and get an offer and try and negoitate the pay and maybe are offered a sum higher than we expected, NO ONE here will turn down that higher pay by saying something like "well, that pay you are offering me is much higher than other people who are doing the same job are doing so I must ask you to greatly reduce the amount you are offering me.". No, instead ALL OF US would gladly grab the higher amount if offered by the prospective employer.0 -
quote:When ANY of us are looking for a job and get an offer and try and negoitate the pay and maybe are offered a sum higher than we expected, NO ONE here will turn down that higher pay by saying something like "well, that pay you are offering me is much higher than other people who are doing the same job are doing so I must ask you to greatly reduce the amount you are offering me.". No, instead ALL OF US would gladly grab the higher amount if offered by the prospective employer.Perhaps, but no one said I could carry a firearm to my new job.[}:)]
To whoever wants to be a mercenary: You want the pay, you take the risks associated with it. Don't feel like risking your life? Then don't play at being soldier, dip-$#!t.[}:)]0 -
quote:Originally posted by warriorsfan
I think it's disgusting that these mercenaries get paid four or five times what an Army PFC does to do the exact same job. If our government can pay these guys six-figures a year to stand around and guard a building or some dignitaries, then why not just pay our soldiers more? That would boost recruitment and then we wouldn't NEED these private security contractors.
Not all of the civilian contractors are security A friends son is over there driving a truck. They have to have non Iraqis do it because otherwise everything would be stolen. Others are there repairing the power grids and water systems. Do you really think we pay our military to repair the sewer systems over there. The term civilian contractor also includes US citizens who cook the food and do the laundry in the Green Zone. There are even McDonalds with American workers in Iraq. So don't just assume they are mercenaries.0
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