Voices from Iraq: A contractor's perspective
Some words from those whom the left so often terms "mercenaries"
By Jeff Emanuel Posted in RedState to Iraq | Special Events — Comments (7) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
They work for such companies as Blackwater, Armor Group, EODT, Tetratech, KBR, and others. They operate in a combat zone months out of the year, putting their lives on the line to do jobs - both infrastructure-building and personal security - which either can not or are not being done by American troops or by Iraqis. They do blue collar work for a white collar wage, due to the risk involved - and for their trouble, they have been demonized by the Kossack left as being "mercenaries" who are worthy of hate because they "leave their wives and children behind to enter a war zone on their own violition [sic]."
Right off the bat on this trip, I was fortunate enough to have the chance to speak at length with several contractors. These men, most of whom have been working in Iraq off and on for a few years, seem to be of one mind with regard to the situation in country - that for four years now, they've been playing a game of "two steps forward, one step back." If they build something for the Iraqis, they then have to guard it against those same Iraqis blowing it up. They have friends and colleagues being wounded and killed regularly (including the four slaughtered and mutilated in Falluja in 2004, about whose deaths Kos himself said "I feel nothing...Screw them"), and see a good portion of their work as being in vain - mostly, as they see it, because of Iraqi mischief and incompetence.
"What I think we did," one Scottish contractor told me, "was give the Iraqis too much freedom and self governance too early." He went on to tell stories of massive governmental corruption, primarily in the form of kickbacks and the diversion of funds intended for infrastructure improvement. He also spoke of the fact that the Iraqis are so lax when it comes to security that they simply cannot be trusted with the task (as evidenced by the Parliament Building bombing of last week) - as well as the fact that "you can never turn your back on them, even if they're police or security guards.
"Money can turn anyone, and you just don't know who's gone bad until it's too late and they've stuck the knife in your back," he concluded, as he picked up the mangled remains of two machine guns which had until recently been carried by two of his companions - now deceased - and proceeded to board a plane back to Baghdad.
Read on...
On the flight over from JFK to Kuwait City, I was accompanied by a former Navy SEAL and current contractor who was returning for his third stint in Iraq since joining the so-called "mercenary" corps. "I don't really know what we can do besides stick it out," he told me in response to the question of what the best course of action in Iraq would be. "If we leave, the entire region will go to ****. We don't have any choice but to keep working at it."
Far from being "war profiteers," or any other (ignorant) choice names the left tries to label them with, the vast majority of these contractors are former military folks who are still working in a combat zone to build state infrastructure, to serve the troops who are there, and to do many other jobs - not because they have to, but because they choose to. The free market which Kos and his ilk hate so much has created the opportunity for seasoned veterans to return to a combat zone and to receive better compensation than they did while in the military, in exchange for performing essential tasks which otherwise would not be done (or would not be done as well). The fact that these men, as Kos himself said it, "willingly enter a war zone, and do so because of the paycheck" is a testament not only to these men themselves, but to the free market which is effective enough to bring civilians and war veterans into areas as unsafe as Iraq to perform these jobs.
The contractors working here in Iraq are unsung heroes of the postwar effort in their own right, and it does them a grave disservice to let the only part of their story, and their opinions, that reaches the public be that which appears in screeds on Daily Kos and other lefty outlets.
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Voices from Iraq: A contractor's perspective 7 Comments (0 topical, 7 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
The abuse heaped upon the men and women who have went to Iraq as contractors, whether in security firms or as truck drivers and engineers, is simply shameful.
Funny that the same people that are denigrating them are largely the same ones who are advocating a draft of some sort.
Contractors have played an important part in military history. Leaving aside the issue of mercenaries, another term which has a specific meaning that is ignored for the sake of vilifying these folks, the American Army has long used contrators. Daniel Boone was a contract teamster during the French and Indian War. The Civil War saw the supply chain of both armies in the hands of contractors.
There are a lot of jobs these guys do that the active military can't do all that well. It makes a lot more sense to have a few retired SEALs and Delta operators providing bodyguards for diplomats than diverting actual SOF units, or 19 year old paratroopers, to accomplish that task.
Contractors provide an efficient way to support committed military forces and it is cheaper and easier to get rid of them at the end of the operation.
"A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition." -- Rudyard Kipling
I too look forward to hearing more from you two. There is just not enough of this type of information out there. Thank you for going to fill this need!
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"Grant what Thou commandest, and command what Thou dost desire." -Augustine
Keep it up - its interesting to get raw perspective.
If I could give a suggestion - it would be this. Tell the stories and let them stand on their own. We don't need the little comments about what the people at Kos think.
"Far from being "war profiteers," or any other (ignorant) choice names the left tries to label them with"
No reason for this. Tell the stories - thats where the meat is. It doesn't matter what the folks at Kos think.
...the contractors' stories are of interest is because they've been so thoroughly demonized. I think that it's quite relevant to remind people what contractors have been called, and by whom, and to what effect...
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC.
I'd be curious about a few things. I saw a frontline a while back about the contractors and everything. It appears the main problems are their lack of accountability to anyone but the company and the general loathing people still in the armed forces have for them (because of the pay discrepancies).
Is there a certain amount of animosity between our men and women in the armed forces and these contractors? Is it noticeable? Does it affect their jobs?
If they screw up what happens? They build something in the wrong place? To the wrong specifications? Shoot an innocent civilian?
Did the ex-military that you encountered have any real job opportunities back home that they passed up to work in Iraq? Would they take a pay cut to be working in a steady job back home near their family in safety?
of men and not a few women in this Country whose life is following the big-money work around the country and the world. Most are skilled trades, construction management and supervision, and project security types - security isn't necessary only in places like Iraq. A lot, though, are just well-known experienced "good hands" that a forman or superintendent will call up and ask to join a crew. Big building, bridge, oil field, new mine constuction; wherever the good money is, they go. Some have a family somewhere, most of the younger ones don't.
It really is a significant subculture in America and I'm certain it looks really strange to solid city dweller types and Lefty academics and the like. Doesn't surprise me that they'd view them as the scum of the Earth. 'Course those guys can hold back their tears and sniffle all the way to the bank confident that they make one Helluva lot more than most of their white collar "betters." Only downside is that unless you get into supervision or management, it really is a young man's game.
I did some of it in my twenties; constuction job to constuction job, finally winding up in Alaska working on the Pipeline. By the end of that, family issues made me need to stay home more and by my early thirties I still didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up, but I was pretty sure I didn't want it to involve either an Eddie Bauer North Slope Parka or a set of that green Helly Hanson raingear. I hated working in the rain so badly that I refused to even get a set of Helly for the boat and went for the fashionable raingear the blowboaters use. Finally had to bite the bullet and get some Helly because slime and fishblood really mess up the pretty stuff and nothing will hurt the Hellys.
In Vino Veritas
Can't wait to hear more from you.