Thursday, 04.10.08
Useful Anarchy
Safin Hamed/AFP/Getty Images
In Defense of PMCs
28 September 2007
Reihan Salam argues that private military contractors are a good thing.
Peacekeeping mercenaries
29 September 2007
Matt Yglesias wonders if the UN should hire private military contractors.
Outsourcing Conflict
September 2007
Someone, somewhere, is hunting for rape statistics right now, to show that nationwide in the U.S., the rate of sexual assault is lower than the rate among contractors in Iraq. I would not be surprised if that is so. There are, for one thing, far fewer women per capita to assault among Iraq contractors than among the American population at large, and it's far more probable that a female contractor is armed or has easy access to a weapon of vengeance. On the other hand, there does seem to be a connection between gruesome crimes like this one and the climate of lawlessness and license in which military contractors operate.
While on military bases in Iraq in 2005 and 2006, I heard boasts of corruption from contractors -- buying cars for officers who awarded them contracts, paying off supply sergeants for use of military property. Some of these ventures would have earned them prosecution, had the military known. But other even more flagrant lapses in ethics and workplace discretion often went overlooked. Workers imperiled themselves and others by operating heavy machinery on which they never pretended to have any training. In one case, the owner of a building company ran his business (staffed entirely by young Asian men) as a harem; together, they built structures and installed toilets by day, and by night, it was said, he enjoyed his pick of the staff. Considering the near impossibility of those workers' leaving his squalid little sexual satrapy, his business model at times resembled slavery.
One could use these appalling examples to talk loosely about the "costs of empire," as if contempt for law and justice were ancillary effects of military adventures abroad. Certainly they don't make the occupation of Iraq seem like a a morally flawless enterprise. What's disconcerting, though, is that the lawlessness that allowed graft and sex crimes to flourish did often seem to have a kinship with the enterprising spirit that allowed things to get done, when they did get done. It might have taken days of waiting, at a cost of lives and treasure, to find a licensed operator for a specialized piece of equipment. The sexual satrap and others like him did useful work and probably wouldn't have wanted to prolong their service in Iraq if they didn't profit, in a way unavailable in the world of law, from the anarchy in which they operated. Lawless environments draw in people who do not want to live within the law, and may require such people to function.
KBR, who employed the victim and one of her alleged assailants, was not among the companies rumored to be especially corrupt, violent, or libidinous, at least not at the low levels. If anything, it was excessively rule-bound. Employees were, for example, required to beep their car-horns before going into reverse, even for just a couple feet; this rule applied not only to big trucks, but also to the smallest hatchbacks in KBR's fleet. (And, incredibly, KBR employees actually complied.) The smallest tasks demanded adventures in bureaucracy. But this insistence on playing by the rules, honking timidly and filling out forms, won KBR no friends, and exasperated some who wanted only to fulfill the military's mission and eschew transactions that involved the words "triplicate" or "work-order." Bureaucracy can kill too.
All this is not to say that rape is a "price we have to pay" for Iraq's pacification and reconstruction, or that there is an ideal level of sexual assault. But my own experience does suggest that in Iraq, wickedness and effectiveness are closer concepts that some might like to admit.
Fraud at KBR?David Rose relates a macabre tale about a KBR contractor in Iraq asked to repair a refrigerator -- and what he found inside. |
In the moneyDaniel Gross surveys KBR's finances. |
In whose court?Lucinda Marshall says sex crimes are a matter for criminal courts, not secret arbitration panels. |
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These examples just don't support your thesis. A man raping his male employees succeeds in building a bathroom, whereas rule-bound KBR...also has rapists. And, you don't mention this, but KBR also has staggering levels of graft and corruption, hidebound bureaucracy or not. So, what, it's the flagrancy of the raping that's the key to success?
But more to it, this is the problem with imperial adventuring. When you take over a country and lack governing legitimacy, nobody follows your rules! You end up with rank lawlessness. We saw it in week 1 when the looting started and the US was powerless to stop it. So, eventually you end up telling yourself guys like this are what's needed in this situation, because they're better than rampaging looters and utter chaos.
But what's really needed is not to be in this siutation. What's needed is legitimate government. And the longer your government is paying people who have sex harems and who are bribing your official representatives, the harder it is to create legitimate government because everyone with money and influence got it by being totally corrupt, and that becomes the norm.
And, of course, all this violence and corruption comes home, too.
Simply put, the Marshall Plan wasn't characterized by "can-do" guys setting up criminal fiefdoms where they were lord and master, raping and pillaging the locals with impunity. And in no small part, that's why the Marshall Plan worked.
Iraq didn't get lawless by chance. It got lawless because we killed the person who was in charge and expected a legitimate pro-American secular government would magically rise from the ashes. When it didn't, we settled on this lawless situation, because it's the only form of government all the parties would tolerate. That doesn't mean guys like this are what we need, it means guys like this are what we've been reduced to. And it's a complete embarrassment.
A new Army study supports Mr. Wood's thesis, according to the Washington Post:
"[The study] looks at the performance of soldiers who entered the Army with waivers for prior criminal convictions, no high school diploma or other reasons. In a nutshell, these soldiers get into slightly more trouble, but assuming they make it through basic training and avoid major trouble, they're more likely to be better soldiers. [ ... ] There's an important point about soldiering worth highlighting here. For all of the obedience, hierarchy and rigidity of the service, the best soldiers are often those who are willing to be a bit unconventional, and to break rules when necessary to get the job done."
See http://blog.washingtonpost.com/inteldump/2008/04/thefewtheproudthe_bad.html
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First this:
"On the other hand, there does seem to be a connection between gruesome crimes like this one and the climate of lawlessness and license in which military contractors operate."
And yet on the other hand, "seem" is such a useful word when that one might want to assert something in the absence of support - or so it "seems."
It "seems" like people who write things like this are anxious to create a perception.
And this:
"Lawless environments draw in people who do not want to live within the law, and may require such people to function."
Just as "editor-less" journalistic environments draw in people who do not want to practice ethical journalism.
Or this:
"Workers imperiled themselves and others by operating heavy machinery on which they never pretended to have any training."
As a 19 year college student many years ago, I worked a summer job in a suburban Chicago public works yard, where I was allowed to drive a huge sewer truck and garbage truck with no truck license, operate a forklifts, jackhammers, use sand blasters, chainsaws, backhoes and big tractors - all with no training....Happens all the time....Not wise, but not particular to Iraq.
As for graft, lawlessness and sexual harassment - I recommend a visit to any construction site or factory or city in the continental USA.
Posted by jcambro | April 10, 2008 4:34 PM