More Perspective on Blackwater and Private Security Forces in War Zones

Putting the Blackwater news into context--to a degree; I'm not going to list off all conflict massacres or contractor mistakes--Popular Mechanics crunches some CBO numbers on contractors vs. soldiers in Iraq:

• 1:6 Contractor to soldier ratio during the American Revolution
• ~ 1:1 Contractor to soldier ratio in Iraq

Of course, one of the big issues when it comes to discussions of contractors is not only accountability, but cost savings.  Books like POGO-precursor-founder Dina Rasor's Betraying Our Troops show that the costs--financial and otherwise--are high, particularly when it comes to logistics support.  Popular Mechanics finds that the costs of armed guards are higher than using members of the service, but only during wartime.  But far more interesting, the CBO found that sergeants in combat earn $190/day, versus firms, which charge $1200/day.

Calculating the comparative costs for private contractors versus government employees is always difficult--and I anticipate the comment section will be filled with statistics about how these numbers are distorted by various overhead costs, etc, and they'll probably even be right--but these are certainly numbers worth considering when looking at what Blackwater USA and other private security firms represent.

-- Mandy Smithberger

Comments

[Doug Brooks]

Contractor ratios vary depending on the type of conflict, level of risk and other factors. We also had a 1:1 ratio in the Balkans where, like Iraq, there was a great deal of reconstruction going on (The United States does not normally use soldiers for reconstruction projects). During conflicts the average ratio for the U.S. military to contractor has been between 2-1 and 5-1.

It is fair to say that with a professional military, as opposed to the old conscript-based military, one would hope that more of the ancillary tasks would be outsourced- we shouldn’t expect our highly trained soldiers to be cleaning toilets, flipping eggs or guarding gates. The military’s duty is to carry out the pointy end of foreign policy; contractors are hired to allow the military to focus on the policies.

Dina Rasor’s book is an interesting and entertaining read but it comes from a particular ideological perspective, so should be taken with a grain of salt. Among other things she barely mentions the fact that the LOGCAP III contract supporting the army has a profit margin of 1% (with a potential 2% bonus) – it was a remarkable deal for taxpayers. The quality has been phenomenal as well, and while there is much that can be improved in terms of oversight and accountability from the government side (which POGO covers well), it is safe to say that operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are the best supported, best supplied military operations in history.

In terms of security contractor costs, it is very odd to compare sergeants to diplomatic security contractors who are generally older veterans with top secret clearances, extensive background checks and highly specialized training for an unusually high risk job. The diplomatic security contractors represent the highest end of contracting – less than one percent of all contractors. The overwhelming majority of all contractors are local Iraqis earning market wages. About half of the 10,000 or so security contractors are Iraqis earning around $700 per month, the bulk of the remaining 5,000 are Third Country Nationals (TCNs) earning generally between $700 and $3,000 per month. There are some policy aspects that should be preserved for the uniformed military, but it is almost always significantly cheaper to do tasks with contractors.

[Axel]

Aside from the Financial and other important considerations there also appears most importantly Integrity and Morality concerns for consideration. I would imagine and it appears most and much of what this Article implies would directly be under the Jurisdiction of the US Government Department of Defense Armed Services.

Also and again, first and foremost most importantly appears that the 'FEDERAL EMPLOYEE WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION RESTORATION ACT' must immediately comply with our (mandated) US Constitutional Bill of Rights Democratic Inalienable Rights and immediately be brought to a US Legislative full floor for immediate approval and for full and complete implementation endeavors!!

Why this 'Federal Employee Whistleblower Protection Restoration Act' has seemingly been held in subterfuge, illegal and/or otherwise by our US Legislatures, Judiciary and Executive Branches of our US Government is seemingly appalling, immoral and heniously and disgustingly indecent and appears that there has seemingly to some extent to have no expression of shame and/or ability of shame from our US Legislatures, Judiciary and/or Executive Branches of our US Democratic Government and only the continued seemingly well guarded deceptive and/or otherwise secrecy and/or secret subterfuge of this Legislation of and by these US Government Branches and seemingly to some extent most or all of our Main Stream and most all other Media is and continues to be appalling and without the reasonable and expected merit that I suggest all reasonable persons would concur.