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BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — One consequence of coming here is that I couldn’t see something I’ve desperately wanted to witness for years: the departure of the final U.S. combat brigade from Iraq. Luckily, the creaky internet access I’ve got here lets me read the Post‘s account. And the AP’s. And this briefing with State’s Michael Corbin and the Pentagon’s Colin Kahl about the transition to State Department leadership during and after the next year.
But still. Over at Kings of War, Captain Hyphen gets real: 50,000 troops, even if they’re largely confined to a training mission, are not going to be “just staffing desks ‘mostly in offices.’” Training missions in Iraq, for years, have been learn-by-doing affairs. December 2011 is a long way away.
Are there any publicly traded private security firms? Because above all, the post-August 2010 period is a perfect time to invest. Michael Gordon:
The department’s plans to rely on 6,000 to 7,000 security contractors, who are also expected to form “quick reaction forces” to rescue civilians in trouble, is a sensitive issue, given Iraqi fury about shootings of civilians by American private guards in recent years. Administration officials said that security contractors would have no special immunity and would be required to register with the Iraqi government. In addition, one of the State Department’s regional security officers, agents who oversee security at diplomatic outposts, will be required to approve and accompany every civilian convoy, providing additional oversight.
Because that’s a check against impunity? Somehow?
But now at least we have our next big reporting project: who’s getting those contracts from State? How long do they last and for how much money? What oversight measures will State’s congenitally dysfunctional Bureau of Diplomatic Security provide? Is DS any less congenitally dysfunctional these days?
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Best to train eagle eyes at State, right-o. Because everything’s just super at DoD.
just now caught Harlan Ullman on MSNBC – keeping it real on “last combat troops” security contractors, and just how flawed Shock ‘n Awe was –
he is credited as author and co designer of Shock n Awe- says they didn’t use the strategy, just the slogan
Senator…we could have zero troops in Irafpak if we just called them something else.
-Eugene Mirman
“Because there are so many variables at play it’s impossible to predict precisely what the U.S. or coalition levels will be in Iraq in six months, let alone in one year. But the goal over time, obviously, is to have an improving security situation with fewer U.S. troops on the ground and with Iraqis increasingly taking over the lead in policing their own country and securing their own freedom.”
-Rummy in 2k3.
the lesson here is that if you want peace your best bet is probably kidnapping a defense contractor’s kid and using the ransom to hire copy writers from the Octogon.
Good thread, Spencer, and good questions about the particulars of the “contractors”. Let’s keep after the answers.
Specifically, the Green Zone is going to feel a ton of gravitational pull to morph into the world’s largest and most expensive mortar-training range.
Somehow I don’t think that Iraqi security will be quite up to the task of inhibiting that pull.
look–this is your beat, not mine. But isn’t this just completely false? Are there not still ca. six (6) fully-equipped brigade combat teams or their equivalent still in Iraq, and will they not remain in Iraq throughout 2011, at the very least?
Assuming at some point there is an actual Iraqi government, headed by a PM that is not Maliki and is al-Sadr approved, there will be an incident that will put this to the test. My guess is it doesn’t end well…
mikey
Call me skeptical and pessimistic, but I envision things deteriorating in Irak so badly that Iran moves aggressively to protect itself and its local interests, thereby bringing Israel and the U.S. their ultimate wet dream to start the bomb bomb bombing. (:>
Halliburton gets letter of intent for Iraq oil
I wonder if the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi is paying for Blackwater to guard its national oil services company’s new venture. Arab troops on Arab soil. Don’t you think.
And as Digby says, “Mission Accomplished”
So, the state department continues to maintain its own private army. Nice. An army for every department, I say. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
So, these 50,000 Americans, being non-combatants, will inflict neither death nor harm on the populace, and also incur neither death nor harm themselves?
Right.
Interior has an army, called BP.