Both of these men have spent the last few years of their lives trying to inform the American Public of a dangerous, costly, and the most significant revolution of modern warfare, a new tentacle of the nation's Military Industrial Complex, the use of private contractors in conducting every aspect of a war.
During Vice President Dick Cheney's reign as Secretary of Defense during the first Gulf War, one in ten people deployed in the theater of operations was a private contractor. After leaving the pentagon for Halliburton Dick Cheney, along with the help of his cohort Donald Rumsfeld, made it their mission to increase that ratio. During the Clinton years when Cheney was at the helm of Halliburton, the company saw an enormous rise in profits from the conflicts in the Balkans. They also saw unlimited earnings potential from any future conflicts the US would be involved in. In 1997 the two enlisted the help of neoconservative activist William Kristol, and proceeded to form the think tank, The Project for a New American Century. This think tank sought to push the idea of American supremacy through military strength. In 2000, it released a report called Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century. The report put forth a plan for a overhaul of the U.S. military machine, a process that would be a, “a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event—like a new Pearl Harbor.” When the Bush administration took office many of the PNAC members found themselves with high placements within the Department of Defense. And almost a year and a month after the report Rebuilding America's Defenses they found themselves waking up to a new Pearl Harbor that would give them the ability to enact their radical ideas for America's Military.
These ideas transformed into what is now known as “The Rumsfeld Doctorine” . This “small footprint” approach relies on drawing heavily from the private sector, emphasizes covert actions, sophisticated weapons systems, and greater use of Special Forces and private contractors. Under this new doctrine the ratio of contractors to soldiers is estimated to be at about 1:1 before the latest troop surge. Of course it is impossible to know exactly how many contractors there are, or even what they are doing. A Government Accountability Office report states that the military has no effective system of oversight and officials could not determine the number of contractors deployed in the theater of operations. It is now estimated that almost 40 cents of every dollar appropriated to the war goes to private contractors. Companies like Halliburton, DynCorp, CACI, and Parson are reaping tremendous profits at the expense of America's soldiers and taxpayers. No bid contracts coupled with 'cost plus pricing', which is the company purchasing all materials and receiving a 1%-3% overage for profit, has led to triple digit percent increases in these companies bottom lines. The Iraqi Coalition Provisional Authority's inspector general brought to light the fact that almost $8.8 billions dollars in cash was flown into the country at the outset of the war, and almost all of it cannot be accounted for. Much of the money was to go to reconstruction efforts for infrastructure such as running water, electricity, sewage treatement, medical centers, and repairing the oil industry. Most of these key projects have not been completed and lay dilapidated and abandoned today. In addition to the failed reconstruction projects contractors have taken over the roles of supplying, feeding, and housing our forces. They have also been contracted to protect the Green Zone, the US Ambassador to Iraq, and even to conduct interrogations at Abu Ghraib and have been linked to the secret CIA renditions program. There are also massive 'black contracts' that little is known about because these contractors are now deeply involved in covert operations around the globe that members of Congress will never even know about. Perhaps even more astonishing than the level of privatization is the incredible lack of oversight and accountability over these contractors.
It is almost impossible to police these private contractors as there are so many layers of protection that have them operating in a complete legal gray zone. One of Paul Bremer's last acts as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority was to grant private contractors immunity from Iraqi law, issuing what is known as Order 17. In terms of domestic oversight private contractors are not subject to The Unifrom Code of Military Justice(UCMJ) which is the Armed Forces justice system. At the same time these companies are protected from public courts because one of Rumsfeld's last crimes was to classify all private contractors as part of the official US Military Force. Under Rumsfeld's guide the Department of Defense began including private contractors in the department's Total Force Estimates. However, it is important to note, that the number of private contractors is never included in talk about the war from the Administration or the mainstream media. If they were, the total force in Iraq would be closer to 275,000 after the surge. There have also been an estimated 917 contractors killed in Iraq and approximately 12,000 wounded. In fact the first three months of 2007 has been the deadliest months in Iraq for private contractors according to the Department of Labor. At least 146 contractors have been killed thus far, coming the closest it ever has to the number of America military deaths for the same period—244. What little Congress has done to look into private contractors hasn't been very effective. Rep. Ike Skelton (D-MO) and Rep. David Price (D-NC) ranking members of the House Armed Services Committee set out this April to find out just how many private contractors were operating in Iraq, by requesting a report from the Government Accountability Office. The GAO replied that private contractors often move in and out of Iraq without notifying anyone and that there is no set plan for the Department of Defense to monitor private contractors at the time. Congress is limited in it's oversight capacity by the fact that a lot of contracts are classified or 'black contracts' because of operational sensitivity. After more than four years at war in Iraq and not even Congress or the DOD can give an exact number of contractors in Iraq or exactly how much money they've actually received. And the amount of fraud, waste, and crimes committed by the contractors is almost unimaginable based on what has already been documented without good oversight and lack of accountability.
It is time for the public to demand accountability from this radical new system of conducting war. It is our money as taxpayers that is being squandered. It is our brothers, sisters, moms, dads, friends, and neighbors in the Armed Services who pay the ultimate price which is far greater than any monetary damage. In 1961, outgoing President and former general Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of the “grave implications” of the rise of the “Military Industrial Complex”. He declared, “The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with out peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.” It us up to us the citizens to be a vessel for the change we want to see.
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