Contractor Soldiers-For-Hire

A recent posting on Military.com was headlined "Slideshow: A Bloody Business". I viewed the slideshow and descriptions, and two thoughts hit me immediately. First, I could see that they were doing dangerous work, providing services to our own military forces. The second thought was based on a picture of a contractor holding a pistol to the head of a supposed Iraqi insurgent, with the comment that he was trying to obtain information regarding other contractors that had been kidnapped.

The slide show was presented in regard to a book written by Col. Gerald Schumacher, titled "A Bloody Business". Not understanding the point-of-view of the slideshow, I entered the forum to see what people were saying about the slideshow. What I found totally supprised me. Most of the comments were directed against Col. Schumacher (as an informed source of the job of the contractors) or critical of the private contractor Crescent Securities (unprofessional thugs).

I have always been critical of the cronyism attached to Vice President Richard Cheney's association with Halliburton, parent company of KBR (Kellog, Brown, & Root) according to Wikipedia. KBR is, by far the largest private contractor serving US interest in Iraq. They are the major contractor providing services to our troops (most visually, they are in charge of most food services for our soldiers in all Operating Bases), as well as transportation of many goods and fuel from Kuwait to all parts of Iraq. Halliburton is widely known as the largest contractor of private oil field services, in the world. Crescent Security is one of the sub-companies of KBR, employed to protect their transportation network.

Halliburton, and all of its iterations operate under 'sole-source' contracts that are never put up for bid by the US government. How much influence did Cheney's previous employement and position on the Board of Directors of Halliburton have on our contracting decisions? How much does George W. Bush's previous ownership and director positions, with the oil industry, have to do with Halliburton having no-bid contracts to provide services to the oil interests and military supply interests in Iraq.

As I followed the thread of discussion regarding the job and quality of work regarding Crescent Security, it became obvious that the whole concept of this security force undermines the job our brave soldiers do. (one of the posts had to do with one of the senior security operatives being killed, a later post described that he was killed by coalition forces as their convoy approached a checkpoint at near to 100 MPH without headlights). My position is that if I was the soldier seeing a convoy approaching in this manner I would have 'shot first and asked questions never'.

I will attempt to get all of the links to Military.com, the slideshow "Slideshow: A Bloody Business", and the forum thread forum: A Bloody Business (my comments are near the bottom), included in this post in the appropriate places. But, if I miss, or you would like more info, please send me a comment, and if you send your email, I will send it direct.

I find Military.com to be a valuable source of information. They are most definitely an advocate of all who are currently or previously served in any branch of the military. They are not afraid to tell it like it is, good or bad. This issue just hit my hot button.

Additonal Refererences: (1) Washington Post.com, "Audit of KBR Iraq Contract Faults Records For Fuel, Food", (2) ,USA Today, "Largest Iraq contract rife with errors".