Today I watched the House Oversight Committee hearings about private contracting in Iraq. I have commented on the extent that we have employed private contraction in a combat zone in Iraq. Although we have used contractors in the past, the extent of their use in Iraq is far and away greater then in any other war.
The House hearings choose not to delve into the details of the most recent incident with Blackwater since the Justice Department is investigating this incident. The discussion looked at the policy of employing contractors in a combat area rather then the use of military as we have in the past. Some of the GOP committee members wanted to look at the performance of Blackwater rather then look at the broader issue of the use of contractors.
There is no question that the quality of the security service provided by Blackwater is no better than and in effect not as effective as the same service that the U.S. Military would provide. In fact there are times when contractors come under fire and require the assistance of our military. In addition Blackwater made it clear when attacked they seek the fastest way out of the fight and concentrate on removing the civilians they are guarding. This means the terrorists that are attacking our civilians are able to escape to attack again.
During the hearing it was reveled that Blackwater employs former military and police officers and is paying them 6 times MORE then we pay our military that perform the same function in guarding military assets. Think of that, the U.S. Government is spending 6 times more of our tax dollars to private contractors then we are willing to pay the U.S. Military for a service that is LESS effective then what our military would provide. They pay Blackwater $500,000 per year for every person they have in Iraq! WHY would any thinking person pay 6 times more for an inferior service? That is what the Bush Administration has been doing. It was also pointed out that the Blackwater contract in Iraq is over a Billion Dollars per year just to protect State Department staff and civilian contractors.
What is clear from the testimony today is we need to end the use of private contractors in combat zones to replace our military. Congress must act to stop this practice and end the gravy train to these private contractors that are performing everything from security to food service in Iraq and Afghanistan.