Blackwater, by Jeremy Scahill

1
I'm just nearing the end of this book now, it having taken me over a year to read due to my short attention span when it comes to long books. It's been hard to follow for me at points, mainly due to the massive conglomerate of names, places, companies, and dates but I have gleamed some interesting info from reading it and I think it's just another indictment against the Bush Administration and I'm wondering if anyone else has read it or has any thoughts on the book or company itself.

I think it's ultimately a bad thing for everybody when you have a corporation that profits from bad things happening and then having said corporation have employees with government ties and people in government that are close friends or associates with the higher ups at the company which is exactly what occurred during the 8 years of the Bush presidency. Using contractors to do the federal government and its officials' bidding, I think, is one of the crimes from our last admin that gets overlooked. It reads like our government in those years was one massive circle of buddies helping each other out to line their own pockets and serve their own interests. Blackwater protecting US Diplomats among other people/things in Iraq and then being given huge contracts to patrol New Orleans post-Katrina despite the money needing to go elsewhere. Not to mention Blackwater's ability to operate with impunity in unstable regions without facing the same restrictions or laws as Federal or State employees is a dangerous scenario especially when they were such a valued asset of the Bush Admin. It's like they really are a private army to be bought and used for whatever the client pleases. Furthermore, I hold a great deal of suspicion for a corporation that engages in what is essentially war profiteering and then tries to become engaged in humanitarian efforts using claims of moral obligations to sell people on the idea.

I'm curious to see if anyone here wishes to share their own views on the book or just Blackwater/PMC's in general.

Re: Blackwater, by Jeremy Scahill

2
Blackwater is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to private armies. There are 100s more companies similar to Blackwater. In a way the fed saves money by companies like Blackwater, now known as XE. While the government pays a lot up front for their services. They don't have to provide VA benefits for their employees.

A friend of mine went to work for Blackwater when they first started. Once his contract ran out he went to work for another company similar to Blackwater. He stayed in Iraq for 6 years after serving 20 years in the Army as a green beret. He is now working part time at Auto Zone. He made plenty of cash in Iraq. He just gets bored sitting around the house.

We are going to see many more companies like Blackwaater in the future. Their roles will expand as our military gets smaller. This is probably the worst time in history to make major cuts in the number of troops in the military. Our youth need the experience and the economy of military towns would benefit from more soldiers.

Moreover, we are in one of the most unstable times in history. By not having trained and experienced troops on active duty American soldiers would die by the thousands being trained in the field in a major conflict.

Re: Blackwater, by Jeremy Scahill

4
begemot wrote:Don't know much more than I've read this on wikipedia. I've been offered training in the NC facility but refused. Partially out of distance but also out of questionable reputation. Maybe others know more
Their reputation is questionable for a very good reason. They've engaged in some pretty awful business practice:

A large chunk of the book is dedicated to the ambush in fallujah where 4 Blackwater guys were killed in the incident that kicked off the massive battle between the insurgency and the marines in the city. Apparently Blackwater was warned by other companies to stay out of the city but instead decided to send out four contractors on a job escorting kitchen supplies despite:
-the men had only met each other the day before
-the jeeps weren't armored
-they had no LMG
-and they were 2 men short of the normal 6.

It seems as though the company that they were escorting for had a subsidiary that was in possession of some construct projects and Blackwater felt if it could rush and get this job done ahead of schedule, the employer would be impressed enough to have them work on the more lucrative construction contracts.

When the families of the victims pushed too hard trying to find out what happened, company reps flat out told them they'd have to sue and then Blackwater tried to argue in court that they shouldn't be allowed to be tried because they were part of the US total force in Iraq and that if the military didn't have to constantly defend itself in court, why should they?

Re: Blackwater, by Jeremy Scahill

5
JohnDeer wrote: We are going to see many more companies like Blackwaater in the future. Their roles will expand as our military gets smaller. This is probably the worst time in history to make major cuts in the number of troops in the military. Our youth need the experience and the economy of military towns would benefit from more soldiers.
I do agree that Blackwater/Xe Services (Yes they changed their name because of the awful reputation they developed) are just the tip of the iceberg. They, and companies like them, in my eyes, are an abomination- nobody in this country should have access to a private army, nor should our politicians be able to use them with no oversight. We need to work on legislation that either prevents their existence, or at least severely limits how/when they can be used and for what purposes.

I'd disagree on major cuts to our military- a large standing army does nothing but fuel the military industrial complex, on things that don't create wealth/prosperity for the country. Now is the time, particularly as we wind down these lied into wars in the middle east. Converting the spending to a civilian corp that worked on infrastructure projects and other civil service I would fully support- in this day and age of technology, conventional warfare is largely obsolete. As unstable as the world is right now, it's not going to come down to a large standing army repelling invaders from Russia, or having to go toe to toe with the full might of the Chinese army. It will be small surgical strikes, increasingly handled for better or for worse by drones./threadjack
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
- Maya Angelou

Image

Blackwater, by Jeremy Scahill

7
Blackwater now goes by the name Academi, and they do a lot more than just personal security for diplomats. I've never been a contractor, but I've served three tours in Iraq as a marine, have seen them operate in theatre, and have a few friends that currently contract -one with Academi right now.

Contractors fulfilled a lot of different roles in modern warfare. The DoD tries to commit 100% of ground combat forces to ground combat missions during war, which leaves gaps in other mission sets that contractors often fill. Diplomat security, indigenous security force training, and force protection are three big ones. The military doesn't want to take active special forces personnel off of their missions to babysit someone from the State Department or the CIA when they go to Iraq or Afghanistan (or any other place in the world with security concerns).

Contractors also work abroad doing other things like maritime security on commercial shipping, protecting them from piracy and kidnapping (think Maersk Alabama). They also work for foreign governments on occasion. An example of this is when Saudi Arabia hired a certain agency to fly in 3000+ Nicaraguans and train them right around the time of the Arab Spring. The idea being that they would have a well trained force on standby that held no loyalties to the local population and wouldn't defect should the need to put down popular dissent arise.

The 21st century has seen a resurgence in the transnational actor on the global stage. Large corporations, terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, or PMC groups like Academi are showing the world that borders are becoming less and less important these days.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: Blackwater, by Jeremy Scahill

9
Consider the "green men" in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. These guys aren't Russian military, they're another type of transnational actor. Russia can send these guys in there without worrying about as high a degree of international blowback. Putin calls this kind of operation "special war." Private Military Contractors (PMCs) will afford other gov't's, the US included, the ability to use PMCs when they need a stepped up ground presence somewhere they can't commit military troops. Hydrocarbon extraction in Papa New Guinea comes to mind...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests