War World

Gordon Dreher, injured Iraqi contractor, with dog, Dancer

We're in the money,
We're in the money;
We've got a lot of what it takes to get along!
--We're in the Money, 42nd Street

By keeping the knowledge of this [contractor] force hidden, it changes one’s perception and one’s evaluation of the war. There are almost a thousand dead and a large number of injuries. I think it masks the fact that we are privatizing the military in this country

This whole shadow force that's been operating in Iraq, we know almost nothing about. I think it keeps at arm's length from the American people what this war is all about."
--Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
_________

The large number of injuries the Rep. refers to is 3,430 for the first three months of 2007, according to the Labor Department (in addition to 146 dead.)

"The contractor deaths earlier this year, for example, came closer to the number of American military deaths during the same period — 244 — than during any other quarter since the war began, according to official figures."

"The number of casualties, though, may be much higher because the government’s statistical database is not complete," reports a New York Times article, "Death Toll for Contractors Reaches New High in Iraq." No one knows the actual number of contractor injuries and deaths.

We've featured Mr. Dreher's picture, which accompanied the Times article, because of his T-shirt.

We think the death's head logo over knife and cross bones, under banner "Operation Iraqi Freedom" in gothic script, is instructive of what is probably the ethos of the average contractor in Bush's private army, as the Times calls it. Cute, no?

As an aside, note the troubled look on his face, and the cherubim figurine behind him. It all adds up to a scene of conflict, both external and internal, which might sum up this war endeavor to a T.

I have also seen photos of Blackwater vehicles in Fallujah with the death's head stenciled on the doors. What is the message here?

Ranger speculated last year about this administration's tactic to diminish the number of casualties in Iraq on the books, hence buying time with a public which has only a certain tolerance for loss before showing unrest. Now the MSM seems to be noticing, too. The Nation also ran a recent piece on the topic--"Bush's Shadow Army.''

The quotes below are taken from the Times piece on the "hidden casualties of war":

"Casualties among private contractors in Iraq have soared to record levels this year, setting a pace that seems certain to turn 2007 into the bloodiest year yet for the civilians who work alongside the American military in the war zone, according to new government numbers.

"(T)he total number of contractors killed in Iraq [is] at least 917, along with more than 12,000 wounded in battle or injured on the job.

"Nearly 300 companies from the United States and around the world supply workers who are a shadow force in Iraq almost as large as the uniformed military. About 126,000 men and women working for contractors serve alongside about 150,000 American troops, the Pentagon has reported. Never before has the United States gone to war with so many civilians on the battlefield doing jobs — armed guards, military trainers, translators, interrogators, cooks and maintenance workers — once done only by those in uniform.

"But at the end of the cold war, Congress and the Pentagon were eager to seize on the so-called peace dividend and drastically scale back the standing Army. The Bush administration expanded the outsourcing strategy to unprecedented levels after the invasion of Iraq.

The figure of 126,000 contractors is murky, since secrecy seems to be a contractor, as well as an administration, virtue.

"Companies that have lost workers in Iraq were generally unresponsive to questions about the numbers of deaths and the circumstances that led to casualties. None acknowledged that they had seen an increase this year.

"The new contractor statistics suggest that for every four American soldiers or marines who die in Iraq, a contractor is killed."

Ranger is hard-pressed to understand how the U.S. taxpayers benefit from contracting out the war. Weekly pay varies from $60 for Iraqi translators and laborers, to $6,000 for private security guards (USD). The average weekly contractor salary, according to a recent NPR report, is about $900. And dear friends, where does that money come from? Compare these rates to that earned by a Sergeant E-5 to see that contractors are paid more than soldiers.

The Nation quotes Senator Jim Webb, "This is a rent-an-army out there. Wouldn't it be better for this country if those tasks, particularly the quasi-military gunfighting tasks, were being performed by active-duty military soldiers in terms of cost and accountability?"

When a contractor is wounded, who pays for his care? Social Security benefits, available to these now disabled personnel, will be absorbed by the taxpayer. Is this what they are calling a peace dividend?