Checkered Armor
Machiavelli taught those seeking to expand their power to be suspicious of mercenaries. Trying to revive Italy back to its former greatness would be done under the auspices of nationalism, not profit. Any employee could quit a job when the waging of war became too costly. But a soldier had a sense of duty, predicated on the refusal to desert or stand down. While doctrines of war might curb the level of atrocities to be encountered, a soldier’s rifle could not quake when confronted by them. In the empire before him, Plato recognized that one could place more confidence in pride and ego than a paycheck, and that an army of lovers would be the most formidable. A coward has no claim to the body of another.
But the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have exposed the weakness in the American currency. The contract of citizenship was only strong enough to pool together tax dollars to fund agreements of indefinite delivery and indefinite quantity to guard embassies and military camps. Representative Charlie Rangel (D-NY) wanted to renegotiate the citizens’ contract into a draft, believing that forced service would be the only mechanism for real scrutiny of the decision to go to war. The loss of lives shaded by poverty certainly didn’t. Democratic theorists also worried about the checkbook war. The democratic mandate was weaker when made out of coin and paper—and given our debt, even much of this was an imaginary deficit of resources. Without a more personal stake navigating the roadside bombs, no one would bother to even check the balance. And as policymakers discuss increasing troop levels in Afghanistan, no one seemed concerned by the certain overdraft fees to come.
In Kabul, this resulted in guards that acted as though no one was watching them—because, for the most part, no one was until the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee called upon the State Department and ArmorGroup. Months prior to the hearing, the State Department had sent the contractor letters complaining about draining labor practices that left the embassy vulnerable, especially since many of the guards lacked sufficient proficiency in English to express just how overworked they were. An official from Wackenhut, the new managers of the ArmorGroup contract, assured the Senators and the State Department that they would improve the performance of the contract. But they could not resist complaining that the firm’s bid for the contract—which had beaten out the new managers when it was initially awarded—was so low that even adequate contract performance cost Wackenhut a million dollars a month and nearly 20 employees from the Y-12 nuclear facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee to fill labor shortages.
But a recent letter from the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) raises concerns as to whether there is any parental supervision in Kabul, from either Wackenhut or the State Department. E-mails and pictures depict an atmosphere that is more bathhouse than embassy or military base. Vodka shots crash down employees’ buttocks in one photo. Another depicts a guard allowing urine to stream down his pant leg and splash an Afghan national.
Those that speak English are referred to as expats, but they lack the aesthetic grace one imagines of the artists who flee America for Parisian cafes that will let them smoke indoors. Instead, the place that serves as their mess hall is patrolled by supervisors swilling and strutting in their underwear. One Afghan national reported a stripped down supervisor seized his face and told the reader of the Koran how he could be better utilized biblically.
On Monday, General McChrystal told Defense Secretary Gates that the situation in Afghanistan is grave. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, has said American failures in the Muslim world are a consequence of focusing more on message than actions to build credibility. As a result, our troops and diplomats are largely distrusted. On this line of credit, Thomas Ricks noted, our checkbook lessened the aversion to our actions in the Iraq War because it was only then that Iraqis could become shareholders in the profits to be gained by our occupation. In Afghanistan, the Congressional Research Service reports that civilian contractors outnumber the troops there by highest ratio in America’s military history. It’s not yet clear how good our line of credit will be there.
But the real question is: to whom are these many contractors accountable? Inherently governmental functions are so defined because they are central to the government’s mission. Both the Department of Defense and the Department of State insist that contractors have been essential to help our war efforts, but generally we do not thank contractors for their service, considering their paycheck to be sufficient payment.
We rightfully profess gratitude to the military, who remain because it is an offense to the country they are there to serve to do otherwise. But even before ArmorGroup’s bonfires lit the screen, the turnover for the guards that spoke English was nearly 100 percent. As these guards were replaced, no one wondered why they refused to stay. No one asked, because until recently, no one cared.
– Mandy Smithberger, POGO Investigaor
