I was listening to an interview with Gen. David Petraeus, and one line of questioning which came up was manpower numbers for counter-insurgency efforts in Baghdad. Petraeus agreed the latest counterinsurgency manual (released last Dec. and available for light reading here) indicated to be successful would require roughly 100,000 troops in Baghdad. He said, counting all US and Iraqi forces in the city gave you 80,000.
However, he added, you also had to count the "tens of thousands" of private security personnel in the city. This caught my attention - I knew, of course, private contractors were providing security in Iraq (as we have heard about them from time to time), but I had no idea the numbers were so large.
According to a 2005 General Accounting Office report, there were at the time about 48,000 individuals providing private security in Iraq (this was a total of both Iraqi and non-Iraqi personnel, and more recent numbers are likely larger). By comparison there were about 152000 US troops in Iraq at the time.
Private security forces working with the US military has expanded greatly in the last two decades. According to this site, the ratios have gone from 50 troops to 1 private security person in the 1st Gulf War to 10-1 in 2003 to 3-1 by 2005. Those are a lot of troops wandering around Iraq with a lot of weapons and not easily accountable to anyone, least of all the US military command structure.
The heavy use of mercenary forces isn't new. Perhaps the most famous were the Condottieri, mercenary armies which were formed by private individuals, usually nobility, and hired out to Italian city-states during the Renaissance. They were famous for betraying employers, charging exorbitant fees and then demanding more regardless of any prior contract and similar shenanigans. Nicollo Machiavelli, who lived in the late period of the Condottieri, is most famous for his political works, but also was an active military thinker of his time. In his "The Art of War" (the entire book can be read here), he admonishes rulers against using mercenaries.
Apparently, the US government doesn't ascribe to Machiavelli.
Jane's had a note earlier this year about "Private security companies are lining up to bid on what may be the last major private security contract in Iraq." (emphasis added)
One can only hope.
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