When we think of the wars raging today the country of my birth (America) is involved in Iraq and Afghanistan and think of private contractors many things come to mind. We may think of the overcharging of the government for services by Halliburton. We may think of the many scandals involving Blackwater (Xe) including illegally smuggling weapons and others for which they were banned from Iraq. We may think of DynCorp’s multiple instances of being involved in sexual slavery.
But there are more problems. The sexual slavery tied to private contractors has been terrible and one of the glaring examples of why we need to have total oversight of companies contracted by our government to do work in war zones. The companies simply are not able to police themselves any better than financial institutions were in the lead up to the current recession.
Of the many instances of wrongdoing connected to private contractors our tax dollars pay for in the current war zones there is another. Sexual slavery has not been the only slavery these companies have been connected to. Besides overcharging for laundry, there was overcharging reaching into the billions. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7201320/ns/nightly_news/) Besides charging for potable water for our troops never delivered there have been other incidents of charging for services never rendered. (http://abcnews.go.com/International/IraqCoverage/story?id=1533349) Besides charging twice as much for the services of a manager of a security team of 34 people as General David Petraeus himself gets paid for overseeing first Iraq now Afghanistan, there were other instances of people working for contractors getting paid far more than they should have been. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/30/AR200709...)
Of the many scams run on the US taxpayers by the private contractors, one of the most heinous has been the use of foreign workers (non US) from countries outside of the war being hired that would never be paid for their work. That’s right there are slaves working for private contractors in the current theaters of war, and the money to feed and house the slaves comes from the American taxpayers - you and me. (http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-nepal-1-story,0,656119.story)
The journey of these slaves starts in countries like the one in the article Nepal. They can be from many nations but typically from countries located in South or Southeastern Asia. These people are tricked into signing up for work in wealthier nations than theirs, like Jordan for example. They are shown pamphlets and brochures with images of luxurious hotels in such places looking for workers.
Next they are told if they want the job they have to make a down payment to cover the expenses of travel etc, and that they will make that back and more through wages promised. They believe this and borrow money from family members and loan sharks and more so they can provide something for their families eventually.
However, once they have paid the money, which for them is a huge amount and often include their parents’ entire life savings, they are sent to numerous places through numerous middlemen until in the end they are transported into war zones like Iraq to work for companies like Halliburton as “cheap labor” that in many cases never get paid a thing. They simply work, eat, sleep and do it all over everyday. The money to keep the captive slaves feeding our troops and more comes from you and me.
Of the many tragedies these people have had to endure at least one group was captured by Iraqi insurgents when their unprotected caravan was captured while transporting them to a work site. The insurgents were not interested in money, they wanted to send a message and they did. They killed the captives as a warning to any others that might follow.
Little did they know most of those men did not even realize they were going to Iraq, and weren’t even paid what they were owed once arriving there. They were beheaded and shot and the killings were captured on video. The video were sent back home for their families to watch broadcast over the news the gruesome killing of their sons, brothers, cousins, neighbors and countrymen.
Today these same kinds of slaves still work in Iraq and maybe Afghanistan. We have between 700-800 military bases and installations worldwide and the amount of money we spend to maintain those involved in war zone and the many more outside those places is staggering. (http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending) We spend money on everything from million dollar military golf courses to slaves used as labor in our theaters of war.
Is it really worth it? Are million dollar golf courses for our generals paid for by you and me in Japan, Saudi Arabia, Korea, Germany and elsewhere really a part of the mission to defend liberty, freedom and democracy? (http://www.alternet.org/economy/82009/?page=2) If so how?
Is keeping slaves in keeping with the mission of spreading freedom, liberty and democracy across the globe? How can we say we are in Iraq spreading liberty when we are keeping slaves? (http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12690) How do slaves fit in with the idea of a free nation supporting liberty and freedom? Slaves are never free. Slaves that paid to become slaves no less.
It really underscores just how out of touch with the mission of helping defend freedom, liberty and democracy across the world our military decision makers have gotten.
One of the worst parts is we are duped just like those slaves serving us, for the US taxpayers would never approve of slavery of any kind, not to mention slavery attached to our tax dollars. Our nation spoke on how it felt about slavery over one hundred years ago. Our position has not changed. We cannot afford for our reputation across the world to be a nation of people that keep slaves to help sustain wars. That would make us no better than many of the nations we have often point the finger at.
It’s time for out of touch cold warriors to stand down and close many of the overseas bases and bring home the respective troops. We can’t afford to be living in the heads of men still trapped in the mentality of an era that ended in 1989. Now even conservatives like Michelle Bachman, Rand Paul and Ron Paul question why we spend so much on military spending now. Many progressives have questioned it for a long time.
Times have changed and Americans have also. We no longer fear a great communist threat. That’s why we had all those bases initially, but that threat ended over 20 years ago. Cold Warriors stand down, bring em home guys. We don’t sell 1957 Chevy’s on car lots because they are outdated and America has moved on to things like fuel injection, fuel economy and gps for starters. Apparently you guys never got the memo. Here it is - it’s over.
To read about my inspiration for this article go to www.lawsuitagainstuconn.com.