Mission Control – writing a Harvard thesis

Just finished watching Dr. Phil’s December show on wounded warriors. (Not a Dr. Phil fan but this was an important topic).  It’s immoral to spend 10 billion a month in Iraq and not spend enough money here to make the VA and related services the gold standard. Because this war is fought by a volunteer force, and with only 1% of the U.S. population in uniform,  it’s too easy to keep the consequences out of sight.

When Dr. Phil asked a rep from the VA to come on the show, the VA reneged after the Pentagon got wind of the show’s focus; after it asked for names of the soldiers who were being interviewed. The brass in the Pentagon didn’t have the guts to answer for certain policies or face the wounded vets and their families on the show. Fear of negative publicity comes before truly supporting the troops.  Instead of showing up, the Pentagon sent a “PR” letter saying what fabulous care the VA system and W. Reed deliver. Good grief. Don’t they get the Washington Post?  Is the leadership at the Pentagon either so insulated that they actually believe that drivel or do they think the American public is so gullible? Tammy Duckworth was more than willing on the show to say what a disgrace her own transition to civilian life was as she moved through the cold bureaucracy of the VA.  Duckworth, a former helicopter pilot, lost both legs in Iraq. Yet after she left W. Reed, the VA ongoing care office didn’t believe her until she showed the physician’s assistant who insisted on seeing for himself!

PTSD, post-traumatic stress syndrome, is occurring at a rate much higher than the VA will admit. They are being overwhelmed with the diagnosis so they are telling staff not to diagnose it.  Suicidal vets are told to fill out paperwork and wait weeks for an initial appointment. This is ludicrous.

It is the height of hypocrisy to spout “support the troops” as President Bush does as his “solemn pledge”, yet be blind to the vets and returning soldiers who are so clearly in need of real support, services, and ongoing health care. It seems Bush only cares about those soldiers who have all their limbs and faculties and who are ordered to stand behind him for a photo op. Unfortunately, he suffers from both attention deficit disorder and being a heartless superficial jerk.

This isn’t just up to the President, or the head of Walter Reed or a congressional committee on veterans affairs. It’s a matter for the American public to commit to as well.  How about writing your Congressional rep or senator? Or to the House Veterans Affairs committee or the Senate committee? Other places to add your voice or time:

Wounded Warriors, Community of Veterans, New England Center for Homeless Veterans, and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

USA Today has a story on the new Status of Forces Agreement that will take effect in Iraq on January 1, 2009. It says that security contractors will no longer be allowed to carry certain kinds of weapons

As of Thursday, most foreign contractors will not be allowed to possess machine guns that fire .50-caliber bullets or larger. If they’re caught with such heavy weapons, Iraqi security forces will take them away.

That should be rich. I’d like to see a picture of that.

The article goes on to say

Iraqi police will be able to search the offices and vehicles of private security contractors, confiscate illegal weapons and expel companies operating without a license.

The article claims that the Ministry of Interior has denied Blackwater an operating license. That should create a problem for the State Dept. if it’s true and enforced.

General Odierno has began calling the Green Zone the “Iraqi Security Zone”.  Wonder if that will catch on?

Also, the State Dept. has a copy of its IG Report on its security contractors (Dec. 2008). The 44-page report updates the Kennedy Panel report from November 2007.  I’ll have to read this over a bit to comment. Happy to have it in time to include the info in my thesis.

This website seems to have deleted some comments and a couple of faculty members who used to have listings. One tenure-track faculty member (not a good instructor) used to be listed in one dept. where he taught, but isn’t listed in there anymore (even tho he still teaches in it). Same for another one in the Govt. Dept. — not listed in one school she teaches in and used to be rated in…so, reader beware: if you are researching a prof., you may not get all the info that was posted.

An acquaintence of mine, Faisal Abbas, a very nice man and young journalist, is now contributing to the HuffPost.  In his day job, he’s the London-based editor of the Arab daily Asharq Al Awsat.  He just emailed me a link to his column on this story. He also interviewed Sy Hersh (one of my favorites) for his paper and they talked about this episode and Arab coverage of the U.S. in Iraq.

In his HuffPost piece, Faisal said

In my opinion, there is no question that there is a lot of anger towards America’s foreign policy and towards the Bush administration in particular, but one has to remember it is this same administration that made it possible for Iraqis to toss shoes at a president in the presence of an Iraqi Prime Minister.

If this had happened under Saddam, al-Zaidi’s would have failed to exist, let alone his Wikipedia page or Facebook groups.

And

let us not forget that when Baghdad was ‘liberated’ 5 years ago, Iraqis were beating pictures of Saddam, not Bush, with their shoes.

Point taken, Faisal. But what a price. Perhaps with President Obama we can begin to do good without the horrendous wrongs along the way.

Update: 1/29/09

In Iraq, the shoe incident becomes artwork.

Friend of the blog, Darry J., sent me this link today. He’s the soldier in the picture with Robin Williams. Since Afghanistan seems to be moving to the front burner again, it’s good to review why we are there.

Somalia comes in second for next “military destination” honor, behind Afghanistan. The UN has just allowed military forces to go into Somalia to chase/find pirates. And, China is sending a warship to patrol the waters off Somalia, joining a multi-national force already there.

Mexico deserves a mention – not for military force but clearly it’s on the verge of being a failed state and it’s MUCH closer to us than any of the others mentioned here.

Further, the Army’s Armed Contractor Oversight Directorate is hiring private security to open an Afghani equivalent of the ROC in Iraq.  Solicitation is open, it’s bid #W91B4N-09-T-5006.  This will be a sole-source contract – no splitting the duties. I see Aegis, Erynis, and Blackwater in the pool.

Erik Prince published an op-ed piece in the WSJ (perhaps the Washington Times has too small an audience?) extolling the virtues of Blackwater. Wired‘’s Danger Room begs to differ.

You decide.

The AP is reporting that a State Dept. panel is recommending that the State Dept. drop Blackwater when its contract for Iraq expires this spring. Apparently, the 40-page report will be released soon.  It seems that the panel further recommends that the Diplomatic Service increase its numbers in Iraq — in other words, bring the work back in-house.

Blackwater has a monopoly due to its “full-spectrum” capabilities there: helos, mambas, and planes — assets the other two companies on the WPPS contract, Triple Canopy and DynCorp, don’t have. And neither does the Diplomatic Service, to my knowledge.

A blog I’ve heard about but never really read until now – Mountain Runner (Matt Armstrong) – has a whole bunch of posts on private military contracting. A good one, Holding Security Contractors Accountable, from 2007 discusses the Aegis “trophy video” and has a comment about the company’s winning the bid to run the Reconstruction Operations Center (ROC) in Iraq:

Aegis…the company that left everyone in bewilderment when it was awarded the largest contract ever given by the Pentagon. The investigation into the shooting resulted in a 200-page report. The Pentagon said the report found no wrong-doing but wouldn’t release it because it was the proprietary property of Aegis. Aegis would not release the report because it contained corporate secrets. Both said the men who did the shooting could not be identified despite the fact each man wore an Aegis supplied and monitored blue-force tracker. South Africa apparently find out one of the shooters was one of theirs and hence put him on trial in violation of their anti-mercenary laws.

One of my contacts told me Aegis spent a great deal of money to prove the video was doctored. So is that in the unreleased report?  (This is the same contact who doesn’t get why the public is upset about waterboarding, so I take some of his comments with a large grain of salt).

The “blue-force” tracker comment above raises a good point. The main point of the ROC is to know where Army contractors such as Aegis are when on the road. The unclassified version of the military’s tracking software, Tapestry, would know if that vehicle was Aegis’.

The lawyers for the Blackwater contractors indicted for manslaughter last week have created a website, Raven23 (their response team code name), to boost support, raise money, and influence public opinion about these men.

Hard not to notice that the “photos” page has each man in his military uniform. Let’s be clear, they were not in uniform when they participated in this assault because they were not soldiers. They were wearing the “Blackwater uniform” since they were civilians. But Blackwater and their lawyers want to confuse you into thinking they are decorated soldiers. They were soldiers. They are now civilians. In Nisour Square that day, when 17 Iraqis died, they were hired guns. Not soldiers.

A court, hopefully, will sort this case out. The evidence looks damning. Iraqis deserve their day in court on this episode. If Blackwater was defending itself, let’s hear it. Let’s see the evidence. Nobody who knows something about OIF thinks the environment is easy, safe, predictable. I believe the real, overarching problem is that parallel activities are conducted in a dangerous place: diplomacy and stability ops during an active conflict, esp. since DoS has so little money and manpower, is a poor idea (as the IG report recently stated — no “unity of effort” across federal agencies).  DoS/USAID/humanitarian groups operating in the same space as the military while the country still isn’t completely secure is a sure way to have these kinds of problems, eventually.

But let’s not conflate the private security guards who are civilians with the soldiers. This line should be more clearly demarcated not further blurred. Let the guards defend themselves honestly, as civilians for hire. This was 2007, several years into this security work for the State Dept. They knew the risks. If they did open fire and kill people without justification in that instance (it’s not justified on the basis that other attacks occurred in the days preceding this event), they should be held accountable. Justice matters. Whether they are found guilty or not, a trial is appropriate. There were rules on the use of force in place when this happened. For America’s soul, the rule of law and accountability have to be re-established. This is a good place to start.

A recent NYT article discusses the huge report on the reconstruction effort in OIF. It also has a link to the report. Congress appropriated $50 billion in reconstruction funds — the most in U.S. history and it all went to one country. “Hard Lessons”, the Inspector General’s report on how those taxpayer dollars were spent concludes that although some efforts were successful, “many were not”.

On a related note, gotta love that Iraqi journalist who had the guts to throw his shoes at Bush the other day. How insulting is Bush taking a “victory lap” around Iraq after the devastation he has wrought – on soldiers, Iraqis, and America’s reputation.  I’ve often said Bush would have been ok as a bartender at private country club somewhere. Instead, we all got screwed because he failed upwards and inexplicably became president. I blame Ann Richards.

Here’s the HuffPost video from late night comedy on this issue. Good stuff.

Below is a NYT photo of Iraqis supporting the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush during an unannounced visit to Iraq. What did Bush expect? Flowers?