Hearing on Private Security Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan
October 2, 2007

Without [private security details] we would not be able to interface with Iraqi government officials, institutions and other Iraqi civilians critical to our mission there.

Every good capitalist knows that any venture worth its salt has a mission statement and a business plan. So, what exactly is the mission of the US State Department in Iraq? And, realistically, are the goals of that mission attainable?

That the US State Department is relying on private contractors, such as Blackwater, to provide security in Iraq gives a pretty good idea as to the answer to the second question.

And that just makes the first question all the more critical.

What is the mission of the US State Department in Iraq?

A look at the latest numbers of personnel in the Iraq region.

Contractor News has me thinking alot about the privatization, outsourcing and offshoring of government jobs. Houston, we've gotta problem.

It's a problem verging on crisis. The question is: how do we get our Presidential candidates to talk about it?

It's so not sexy. Photo opportunities pretty much suck. Voters get bored after the first word, 'privatization.' It's got too many letters, too many syllables. It sounds like sanitation, kinda. It's a government worker thing, and government is too big already.

Everyone is talking about the number of troops in Iraq. But so far, few are accounting for contractors in the numbers.

Take the word "contractor" and replace it with the word "troop" because that's what many of the contractors are doing in Iraq: the jobs once held by troops. Many civilian contractors are themselves former military.

The cook is a civilian from Bosnia, the mechanic is a civilian from the Phillipines and a fresh American troop can now hold a gun. This shift lowers the numbers of deployed troops so that the low "troop" numbers are more palatable to Americans at home.

So let's look at some hard data that includes the numbers of contractors as well as troops in Iraq. Join me below the fold to look at how these numbers have changed since March 2003.

This is an update of an earlier commentary I posted at ePluribus Media on  June 23, 2006. Making the War in Iraq Palatable at Home

Given ongoing events through out the Middle East, do you have any recommendations for books to read? The wider the variety and view points, the better.

What I saw today in downtown Los Angeles was the true beauty of our Constitution in action: the right to assemble, the right to freedom of speech.

 
The march was one of the most festive events I think I have ever been to.  Parents brought their children, grandmothers carried toddlers, generations stood shoulder to shoulder with one purpose: stop HR 4437. This was very much a march about protecting one's family. And that's what HR 4437 wants to do: tear families apart.

Groups in opposition to H.R. 4437 state that the legislation would affect over 11 million immigrants and their family members and communities and, as such, represents the harshest anti-immigrant bill in over a century. -- wikipedia.