Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Private Warriors
Blimeeee. Blimey! I've never been much of a "Frontline" watcher. But then I saw "The Secret History of the Credit Card" (which you can watch online on PBS's website, in addition to 52 "Frontline" other episodes) and I became interested. Soon after came "Is Walmart Good for America?" Then, last week, a harrowing, raw look at the privitization of the American military in Iraq. Military contracting is an extremely high-risk occupation, one that many ex-Army, Marine, Navy Seal, and Air Force professionals pursue for financial reasons. The three-person Frontline crew responsible for producing, writing, filming, and narrating this film were the first to interview those in charge of running military operations in Iraq for private contracting firms such as Blackwater USA, Halliburton subsidiary KBR ("the Dick Cheney one"), AEGIS, and Erinys (British).
The military has contracted the provision of fuel, food, sanitation services, construction services, transportation services, and security to these firms, who do everything from providing American soldiers with several different types of ice cream after their meals to protecting the US Ambassador and other officials. They are of course compensated handsomely, for Iraq is one of the most violent, dangerous, conflict-ridden places in the world. It is where a 2-mile stretch of road from the Baghdad airport to the US-controlled Green Zone β so-called Route Irish β is often referrred to as "the road of death" due to the constant threat of snipers, insurgents with grenade launchers, and suicide bombers. It is where even journalists who were against the war in Iraq and are against the US-held occupation of Iraq are sometimes threatened, kidnapped, held for ransom, and murdered. And it is where, on a sunny March day in 2004, four American Blackwater security guards were helping transport supplies for the catering firm ESS, entered pro-Saddam Fallujah, were attacked by insurgents, shot multiple times, burned in their cars β their charred, lifeless bodies beat in the street βand finally dragged through the streets and hung from a bridge for all the world to see.
The military has contracted the provision of fuel, food, sanitation services, construction services, transportation services, and security to these firms, who do everything from providing American soldiers with several different types of ice cream after their meals to protecting the US Ambassador and other officials. They are of course compensated handsomely, for Iraq is one of the most violent, dangerous, conflict-ridden places in the world. It is where a 2-mile stretch of road from the Baghdad airport to the US-controlled Green Zone β so-called Route Irish β is often referrred to as "the road of death" due to the constant threat of snipers, insurgents with grenade launchers, and suicide bombers. It is where even journalists who were against the war in Iraq and are against the US-held occupation of Iraq are sometimes threatened, kidnapped, held for ransom, and murdered. And it is where, on a sunny March day in 2004, four American Blackwater security guards were helping transport supplies for the catering firm ESS, entered pro-Saddam Fallujah, were attacked by insurgents, shot multiple times, burned in their cars β their charred, lifeless bodies beat in the street βand finally dragged through the streets and hung from a bridge for all the world to see.
