Privatizing our Military
By: Terry Schwadron
Tags: Military, Contractors, Trump Administration, Afghanistan, Syria

Terry H. Schwadron

Feb. 21, 2020

Even if Donald Trump succeeds in fulfilling a campaign promise to bring U.S. troops home from faraway wars by election time, he won’t necessarily be returning American fighters.

That’s because the number of American mercenaries and corporations like the now renamed Blackwater company are taking on more fighting on behalf of the U.S. military.

Indeed, among the recent deaths cited by Trump for retaliating with an assassination strike against Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani was the death of an American contractor, as well as attacks more generally against U.S. troops over years. Even as that chapter was unfolding, there was a fatal attack by a Somali jihadi group in Kenya that left three Americans dead, including two American contractors.

Slate magazine recently reported on the fact that the United State increasingly relies on private contractors in a number of overseas military operations, creating what it said was a situation that obscures the extent of the U.S. military’s reach and creates a host of new dangers. As Donald Trump moves ahead with other troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, Syria, Africa, even potentially Korea, these contractors could take on a greater role.

That Trump embraces this reliance on contractors is reflected in a close relationship with Erik Prince, founder of what was Blackwater and now is called Academi, who happens to be brother to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Prince, who came to renown for starting Blackwater, recruiting U.S. troops for pay as they were leaving their military service, ran into major problems after his forces were caught up in the killing of 17 Iranians in 2017– outside the reach of the U.S. military.

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From a policy perspective, it is unclear is Trump recognizes the difference between U.S. troops and contractors. On the one hand, when he talks about withdrawing from “endless wars” and bringing troops home, he makes no mention of using contractors in their place, American or not. On the other, he recently committed a few thousand U.S. troops to Saudi Arabia in return for a $1 billion payment for deployment of actual troops to defend Saudi oil fields.

For that matter, none of this has arisen at a debate among Democratic presidential candidates either.

Since Trump operates a foreign policy on gut and by the situation at the moment rather than by strategy and policy, the use of mercenaries and commercial companies to do fighting for the U.S. military may well serve his interests — so long as he gets someone else to pay the bill. There seems to be no moral or legal line that he recognizes in these areas.

Instead, we might consider seriously that all the talk about withdrawal from Syria as a campaign tool, as proof of meeting campaign promises to do so. Meanwhile, Americans could remain in danger as contracted mercenaries.

Prince, in fact, has publicly advocated replacing U.S. troops in Syria and Afghanistan with contractors — much as private companies now run prisons or hold migrants, including children taken from parents, in privately operated facilities at the southern border.

Indeed, we might consider seriously that all the talk about withdrawal from Syria as a campaign tool, as proof of meeting campaign promises to do so. Meanwhile, Americans could remain in danger as contracted mercenaries.

The Pentagon reportedly is considering a major withdrawal from bases in Africa even as conflicts with terrorist groups in Somalia and West Africa are said to be increasing. That could provide a perfect opportunity for companies like Prince’s.

Prince, meanwhile, faces Justice Department investigations involving whether he lied to Congress during the Russia probe regarding meetings with a Russian banker in the Seychelles islands, whether he was doing so as an emissary of Trump, and whether he separately violated federal laws over attempts to sell weapons of mass detruction to the United Arab Emirates.

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The move toward privatization began before Trump took office, Slate’s report showed. Under the George W. Bush administration, Blackwater employees killed 17 Iraqi civilians in the 2007 Nisour Square massacre, drawing anger and debate over the use of military contractors in Iraq. Then Sen. Barack Obama sponsored a bill to rein in use of \contractors and hold them accountable for abuses. But as president, Obama relied heavily on them, even as he worked to withdraw troops.

An analyst named Micah Zenko noted in 2016 that “under Obama, more private military contractors have died in Iraq and Afghanistan than all the U.S. troops deployed to those countries.” Former Army officer and contractor Sean McFate told Slate that “Contractors are like crack cocaine for presidents, because it allows them to extend American muscle but not under congressional oversight. It’s a way to circumvent democratic accountability for military force.” McFate added, “Americans don’t care about dead contractors coming home in body bags. They care about dead Marines coming home in body bags.”

A 2018 Pentagon report said the U.S. military is relying on about 5,500 contractors in both Iraq and Syria. About half of these are U.S. citizens and the rest are third-country nationals. The majority of these serve in support roles, not combat, but it’s hard to tell. In nonofficial war zones like Somalia, things are even murkier. Russia has used private firms as well.

Clearly, increased privatization makes war less obvious and politically sensitive. As with armed drones, options that lower the political costs of military force tend to make that force more appealing. Meanwhile, Congress has become less inclined to exercise oversight. Indeed, after two attacks in Africa, senators said openly that they were unaware of how man y troops and contractors we actually have on that continent.

Outside of military supervision, contractors have been implicated in labor violations, allegations of human trafficking, and cultural issues in deployed countries. The laws governing actions by contractors are less enforceable than the military code of justice. The Pentagon does not normally track casualties and deaths.

It makes you wonder, among other things, why we need to vastly upgrade the U.S. military if we’re outsourcing the work to companies. And why we don’t ask about it at political debates.

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