Last night Jon Stewart hosted Jeremy Scahill, author of the book Blackwater. Stewart seemed not very impressed by Scahill's estimate of 120,000 mercenary troops (from a number of companies, designated as "private contractors") on the ground in Iraq, serving to nearly double American military presence, hide the true number of deaths and injuries, and able to operate with impunity.
Democracy Now! has an interview with Scahill up from January 26th, Our Mercenaries in Iraq: Blackwater Inc. and Bush's Undeclared Surge that is worth reading. Again, it's not just Blackwater, they're just the most visible (and elite) mercenaries, who are also being used inside the US for various shady operations - like "security operations" in New Orleans after Katrina, where they were on the streets armed and on-the-job days before Bush allowed the National Guard into the city.
Now, I've been thinking about this. The average mercenary was trained by our military - at taxpayer expense - and served their indentured time. Now they are paid up to $48,000 a MONTH to operate in war zones - paid by US taxpayers - which is a lot more than our overextended military forces are paid. Sure, this is a very expensive way to fight a war, but this war already has us $2 trillion in debt and the Bushies have no intention of ending it any time soon.
So I've got an idea...
What if we just bring our men and women in uniform home, and let the mercenaries stay behind to do whatever the Iraqis won't do for themselves? Their presence wouldn't be any more expensive than it already is, our kids could come home and maybe serve to protect and defend the actual homeland in case of attack or natural disaster, and the Bushies could still steal all the oil! Besides, we'd save the portion of funding that goes to the military and contractors [like KBR] right now, cutting the cost of this war significantly.
Even better, if taxpayer funds are still to pay for the mercenaries, Congress could force UMCJ restrictions, reporting requirements and even negotiate reasonable deals with the mercenary companies.
Caveat: I don't like mercenaries any better than Scahill does, but I do have to admit they have their advantages. If a case can be made that invasion and occupation of Iraq was necessary even without 9-11, Saddam or WMDs, we could force the government to MAKE that case to us and ask us nicely for funding of continuing operations. We cannot stop the civil war that is occurring, so we shouldn't put our soldiers in between the warring factions. The Neocon planners actually wanted to destabilize the entire region, and got just what they wanted...
...So let them play their end game without our children being force-fed to the meat grinder. Then, in 2008 when Democrats take over the administration, we can take a closer look at the whole mess and decide whether we care to deal with mercenaries at all - maybe end the whole charade by going back to the UN hat-in-hand and actually using that diplomatic corps of ours that has been crippled since 2001.
Some other recent diaries on the subject:
Jeremy Scahill in MA last night...
Bush's Private "SS": How is he getting away with it?
the administration's secret mercenaries
Blackwater: The Most Powerful Mercenary Army?