Askar Amerika Syarikat melakukan pemeriksaan radio semasa rondaan di Mosul, 390 km (240 batu) di utara Baghdad (A U.S. soldier performs a radio check during a patrol in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad (Reuters/Saad Shalash - thinkINpictures @1WORLD Community)
SitiWanMahani – Yang pesat membangun serangan Al-Qaeda memaksa kerajaan Iraq bukan sahaja untuk membeli lebih banyak senjata Amerika dan bekalan, tetapi juga untuk gaji tentera tentera upahan dan kontraktor swasta, sebelum ini disewa oleh Jabatan Pertahanan Amerika Syarikat.
Menurut Wall Street Journal, lebih daripada 5,000 pakar telah dikontrakkan oleh kerajaan Iraq. Mereka kini bekerja di negara ini sebagai para penganalisis, jurulatih tentera, pengawal keselamatan, penterjemah dan juga tukang masak. 2,000 daripada mereka adalah rakyat Amerika.
“Anda mempunyai situasi di mana kerajaan telah menjadi yang bergantung kepada kon-traktor,” Allison Stanger, seorang profesor politik - sains di Middlebury College, mem-beritahu WSJ. “Ia satu anjakan kuantum sebenar.”
“Tugas2 tentera sebenarnya, telah ‘Outsourcing di Iraq,” mengesahkan penganalisis Steven Schooner, seorang profesor di Universiti George Washington Law School.
Hubungan Washington dengan Baghdad telah melalui transformasi besar. Secara rasmi, Amerika Syarikat mempunyai hanya beberapa ratus tentera di Iraq dan Jabatan Perta-hanan Amerika Syarikat tidak kontrak syarikat-syarikat keselamatan swasta untuk beroperasi di Iraq.
Namun, perubahan besar dalam hubungan Amerika Syarikat - Iraq sekarang ialah Washington tidak lagi memperuntukkan wang bajet operasi di Iraq. Ia adalah Baghdad yang menghabiskan wang pada senjata Amerika, kenderaan dan peralatan, manakala syarikat-syarikat pertahanan Amerika mendapatkan wang di Iraq dengan meletakkan kontraktor tentera di sana.
Syarikat pertahanan swasta seperti Triple Kanopi dan DynCorp Antarabangsa, menyediakan kontrak berbilion di Iraq untuk tahun akan datang.
Washington secara aktif membantu kerajaan Iraq dalam memerangi keganasan, membe-kalkan Baghdad dengan drones dan sedang menimbangkan training beberapa pasukan elit negara tentera di jiran Jordan.
Satu operasi serangan terhadap Negara Islam Iraq dan Levant (ISIS), puak yang Al -Qaeda kini menduduki Fallujah, adalah berjanji untuk menjadi satu usaha yang serius yang mem-beri faham penggunaan yang terbaik dalam senjata api, jadi Baghdad adalah membeli $6 billion peralatan yang ketenteraan bernilai dari Amerika Syarikat, termasuk 24 helikopter serangan Apache dan hampir 500 Hellfire peluru berpandu.
Contractors flood into Iraq to give Al-Qaeda a run
for the money . . .
The rapidly developing Al-Qaeda incursion is forcing the Iraqi government not only to buy more American weapons and supplies, but also to payroll an army of mercenaries and private contractors, previously hired by the US Defense Department.
According to the Wall Street Journal, more than 5,000 specialists have been contracted by the Iraqi government. They are currently working in the country as analysts, military trainers, security guards, translators and even cooks. Some 2,000 of them are Americans.
“You have a situation where the government has become dependent on contractors,” Allison Stanger, a political-science professor at Middlebury College, told WSJ. “It's a real quantum shift.”
“The military task has, in fact, been outsourced in Iraq,” confirmed analyst Steven Schooner, a professor at George Washington University Law School.
Washington’s relationship with Baghdad has undergone a major transformation. Officially, the US has just several hundred troops in Iraq and the US Defense Department does not contract private security companies to operate in Iraq.
Yet the major shift in US-Iraq relations now is that Washington is no longer allocating budget money on operations in Iraq. It is Baghdad that spends money on American weaponry, vehicles and equipment, while American defense companies are earning money in Iraq by placing military contractors there.
Private defense companies, such as Triple Canopy and Dyncorp International, have multibillion contracts in Iraq for years to come.
Washington is actively assisting the Iraqi government in fighting terrorism, supplying Baghdad with drones and is considering training some of the country’s elite military forces in neighboring Jordan.
An assault operation against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), a faction of Al-Qaeda currently occupying Fallujah, is promising to be a serious undertaking implying the use of the utmost in firepower, so Baghdad is buying $6 billion worth of military equipment from the US, including 24 Apache attack helicopters and nearly 500 Hellfire missiles.
Helikopter Tentera Amerika Syarikat AH - 64 Apache (The U.S. Army's AH-64 Apache helicopter (Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji - thinkINpictures @1WORLD Community)
Sekumpulan ahli parlimen Amerika Syarikat atas cubaan untuk menyekat (attempted to block) perjanjian Apache, menyatakan kebimbangan bahawa menyediakan Iraq dengan helikopter dan senjata lain untuk membantu pertempuran Al-Qaeda, juga bermakna baha-wa Perdana Menteri Iraq Nouri al-Maliki mungkin menggunakannya terhadap pesaing beliau.
Tetapi perjanjian itu namun telah dimuktamadkan dan kumpulan pertama helikopter dijangka di Iraq tidak lama lagi, bersama-sama dengan peluru berpandu neraka. Ini juga bermakna bahawa 200 lagi kontraktor akan datang ke Iraq untuk memastikan helikopter beroperasi dengan baik.
Dalam pada itu keganasan di Iraq adalah di record high. Militan al-Qaeda di selatan memajukan negara dan biasa mengadakan tindakan keganasan (terror acts). Ia seolah-olah kerajaan Iraq mempunyai pilihan selain turun pada (come down) pemberontakan dengan daya maut.
Sejarah berulang
Ia mungkin tidak keterlaluan jika dikatakan bahawa perang di Iraq adalah seperti jauh daripada lebih kerana ia adalah pada tahun 2003, walaupun dengan 2 perbezaan utama. Pertama: dalam ketiadaan Saddam Hussein tenteranya telah digantikan dengan Mujahidin Al-Qaeda. Yang Ke-2: tentera biasa Amerika Syarikat telah digantikan oleh beribu-ribu kontraktor, Wall Street Journal melaporkan .
Selebihnya tetap sama: tentera upahan Inggeris dijangka choreograph yang menyerang bandar-bandar Iraq dipertahankan oleh pejuang Arab Al -Qaeda, tepat kerana ia telah kembali pada tahun 2004 semasa Pertempuran Fallujah. Hari ini Fallujah, diduduki oleh Al-Qaeda, kekal sebagai sasaran utama bagi kuasa-kuasa kerajaan Iraq untuk serangan yang disokong oleh tentera upahan.
Tentera Amerika Syarikat memasuki Iraq pada tahun 2003 dan secara rasmi menarik diri dari negara ini pada tahun 2011. Di puncak perang terdapat 157.800 anggota tentera Amerika di Iraq.
Jurucakap Pentagon, Tentera Laut Komander Rang Undang-Undang Bercakap, melaporkan bahawa terdapat hanya 250 tentera Amerika di Iraq. Ini adalah sama ada anggota per-khidmatan penasihat yang diberikan kepada Pejabat Kerjasama Keselamatan mengawasi interaksi tentera Amerika Syarikat dengan kuasa-kuasa Iraq, atau Kor Marin pengawal keselamatan mendapatkan kemudahan diplomatik Amerika Syarikat.
A group of top US lawmakers attempted to block the Apache deal, expressing concerns that providing Iraq with helicopters and other arms to help battle Al-Qaeda, would also mean that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki might use them against his rivals. But the deal has nevertheless been finalized and the first batch of helicopters is expected in Iraq soon, along with the Hellfire missiles. This also means that 200 more contractors will come to Iraq to ensure the helicopters operate properly.
In the meantime violence in Iraq is at a record high. Al-Qaeda militants are advancing in the country’s south and are staging regular terror acts. It seems the Iraqi government has little choice but to come down on the insurgency with deadly force.
History repeats itself
It is probably no exaggeration to say that the war in Iraq is as far from being over as it was in 2003, with two major differences though. First: in the absence of Saddam Hussein his troops have been replaced with Al-Qaeda mujahedeen. Second: the US regular army has been supplanted by thousands of contractors, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The rest remains the same: English-speaking mercenaries are expected to choreograph the storming of Iraqi cities defended by Arab-speaking fighters of Al-Qaeda, exactly as it was back in 2004 during the Battle of Fallujah. Today Fallujah, occupied by Al-Qaeda, remains the primary target for the Iraqi government forces to assault backed by mercenaries.
US troops entered Iraq in 2003 and officially withdrew from the country in 2011. At the peak of war there were 157,800 American military personnel in Iraq.
Pentagon spokesman, Navy Commander Bill Speaks, reported that there are only 250 American troops in Iraq. These servicemen are either advisers assigned to the Office of Security Cooperation overseeing the US military interaction with Iraqi national forces, or Marine Corps security guards securing US diplomatic facilities.
Setiausaha Negara Amerika Syarikat John Kerry (dariTengah) menimbulkan untuk gambar dengan Marin Amerika Syarikat yang berpangkalan di Baghdad semasa lawatannya ke Kedutaan Amerika Syarikat di Baghdad 24 Mac 2013. (Reuters/Jason Reed - thinkINpictures @1WORLD Community)
Selepas penarikan balik tentera Amerika Syarikat dari Iraq, kewajipan melindungi kepen-tingan Amerika Syarikat di negara ini telah diturunkan kepada beribu-ribu kontraktor dari Kementerian Pertahanan Amerika Syarikat dan agensi keselamatan yang lain.
Menurut Jabatan Negara Amerika Syarikat dan Pentagon, dianggarkan terdapat lebih 12,500 kontraktor di Iraq, bekerja untuk kerajaan Amerika Syarikat pada Januari 2013. Pada Oktober, menurut laporan suku tahun, bilangan mereka telah menurun kepada 6,624 pakar. Kurang daripada satu perempat daripada mereka (1,626) adalah rakyat Amerika, selebihnya adalah rakyat Iraq (2,191), dengan 2,807 pakar awam dari negara-negara asing.
Rang Undang-Undang bercakap berkata utama kontrak Jabatan Pertahanan Amerika Syarikat yang terakhir di Iraq berakhir pada 15 Disember dan kini terdapat sifar kon-traktor di Iraq diupah oleh Jabatan Pertahanan Amerika Syarikat.
Di mana semua orang2 kontraktor pergi? Mereka masih di Iraq, mengekalkan majalah Dasar Luar.
FP bertanya Triple Kanopi, sebuah syarikat pertahanan yang besar swasta dan perlin-dungan untuk Amerika Syarikat Angkatan Khas veteran, untuk maklumat dan tahu bahawa “Baru-baru ini semua agensi kerajaan Amerika Syarikat telah mengurangkan pergantun-gan mereka kepada kontraktor kerana pemotongan bajet dan telah de- scoped kontrak menyeluruh, termasuk di Iraq,” kata syarikat itu satu kenyataan.
“Kontraktor akan terus terlibat di Iraq dalam masa terdekat. Walau bagaimanapun, majo-riti kakitangan ini mungkin akan bekerja di projek-projek komersial ekstraktif dan pembinaan,” kata syarikat itu.
Kontraktor dari syarikat pertahanan terbesar Amerika menyediakan penyelenggaraan bagi peralatan dan kenderaan sebelum ini dibeli oleh kerajaan Iraq dari Amerika Syarikat, seperti helikopter, C -130 pesawat pengangkutan, kapal terbang pengawasan, pesawat, peralatan komunikasi dan banyak lagi.
Sepanjang tahun-tahun perang di Iraq dan Afghanistan terdapat pelbagai kes penipuan yang berkontrak.
Suruhanjaya Bebas Kongres Amerika Syarikat pada Pejanji perang ditentukan bahawa sekurang-kurangnya $31 billion dalam pembiayaan Amerika Syarikat telah sia-sia kerana “pengawasan yang lemah, penipuan, pembaziran, dan penyalahgunaan,” kata bekas Wakil AS FP ini, Christopher Shays, yang digunakan bersama - kerusi Suruhanjaya.
“Apabila tentera terpaksa meninggalkan, ia menjadikan kita lebih bergantung kepada kontraktor untuk keselamatan,” kata Shays, sambil menambah bahawa “Perkara yang satu itu yang diberikan: Kami tidak boleh pergi ke perang tanpa kontraktor dan kita tidak boleh pergi kepada keamanan tanpa kontraktor.”
Amerika Syarikat telah didakwa membelanjakan lebih daripada $ 200 bilion pada kon-traktor dalam kedua-dua Afghanistan dan Iraq sejak sedekad yang lalu. Sekarang kerajaan $31 billion telah memindahkan perbelanjaan ini kepada kerajaan Iraq, tentera kompleks perindustrian dan keselamatan swasta syarikat-syarikat Amerika sudah bersedia untuk membuat kekayaan di Iraq.
After the withdrawal of the US troops from Iraq, the duty of protecting US interests in the country was relegated to thousands of contractors from the US Defense Ministry and other security agencies.
According to the US State Department and Pentagon, it is estimated there were over 12,500 contractors in Iraq, working for the US government as of January 2013. By October, according to a quarterly report, their number had decreased to 6,624 specialists. Less than a quarter of them (1,626) were American citizens, the rest were Iraqis (2,191), with 2,807 civilian experts from foreign countries.
Bill Speaks said that the last major US Defense Department contract in Iraq ended on December 15 and now there are zero contractors in Iraq hired by the US Defense Department.
Where did all those contractors go? They are still in Iraq, maintains the Foreign Policy magazine.
The FP asked Triple Canopy, a huge private defense company and sanctuary for the US Special Forces veterans, for details and learnt that “Recently all US government agencies have reduced their reliance on contractors due to budget cuts and have de-scoped contracts across the board, including in Iraq,” the company said a statement.
“Contractors will continue to remain engaged in Iraq in the near future. However, the majority of these personnel will likely be working on commercial extractive and construction projects,” the company said.
Contractors from America's biggest defense companies are providing maintenance for the equipment and vehicles previously bought by the Iraqi government from the US, such as helicopters, C-130 transport aircrafts, surveillance planes, drones, communication equipment and more.
Over the years of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan there have been multiple cases of contracting fraud.
The US Congress’ Independent Commission on Wartime Contracting determined that at least $31 billion in US funding had been wasted due to “poor oversight, fraud, waste, and abuse,” said FP’s former US Representative, Christopher Shays, who used co-chair the Commission.
“When the military had to leave, it made us even more dependent on contractors for security,” Shays said, adding that “The one thing that's a given: We can't go to war without contractors and we can't go to peace without contractors.”
The US has allegedly spent over $200 billion on contractors in both Afghanistan and Iraq over the last decade. Now that the US administration has transferred these expenditures to the Iraqi government, the American military industrial complex and private security companies are ready to make a fortune in Iraq.
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