Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 28. maj 2006 / Time Line May 28, 2006
Version 3.005/28/2006
Latino Mercenaries for Bush
By: Saul Landau
Canadian Dimension; Mar/Apr2006, Vol. 40 Issue 2, p44-47, 4p,
1bw
Not Enough Troops to Occupy Two Places
Teens No Longer Falling for Recruiter's Line Looking South for
Soldiers Outsourcing the War Recruiting Across Latin America
Mercenaries Wanted A Growing Private Army Hope and Anger
In the faculty dining room at the California State University where
I teach, a Mexican-American woman places the thin slice of turkey
on the bread to make my sandwich. The stress lines that radiate
down from her high cheekbones twitch as she tells me politely that
she's fine. One of her sons is in Afghanistan, she reports. The
other will leave tomorrow for Iraq. "I pray every day," she says,
smearing the mayonnaise on the other slice of bread.
"Why did the kids join the military?"
"The older joined the National Guard," she informs me, with still a
trace of an accent. "He thought he wouldn't see real action. The
other one just wanted to fight overseas." She smiles, resigned to
her lack of control over adolescents growing up in a combat
culture. "He's a good boy, but believes what the whatcha-call'em
guys told him you know, the ones that look for kids to join
up?"
I ask how she feels. "I ask God to return them to me," she says.
"Do you think they'll be alright?"
"I hope they will," I say. "But I don't know."
"What can I do to bring them home? I'm desperate."
Desperation describes the mood of hundreds of thousands of Latino
parents whose kids serve in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq.
It also describes the current behaviour of the rich and confident
managers of the U.S. empire, who, in less than three years, have
gotten almost 200,000 young men and women stuck in two quagmires
without an exit strategy.
Not Enough Troops to Occupy Two Places
Bush's Middle East wars and the subsequent occupation of large
countries by the U.S. military and the National Guard have not only
divided the nation and fomented deep anti-American sentiment
throughout the world; they have also strained the resources of the
mighty Pentagon. The 2005-06 "Defence Budget" of $640-billion-plus
(counting the intelligence budget) comes to almost twice what the
rest of the world spends on "defence."
Until the 21st-century Middle East wars, the military casually
filled its recruiting quota from amongst poor youth around the
country. National Guard service appeared attractive, since the
chances of having ever to engage in an actual war seemed remote to
hundreds of thousands of volunteers.
That all changed quickly after Bush invaded Afghanistan and Iraq,
and discovered that he did not have enough troops to occupy both
places. So, he called up the Guard and launched an aggressive
recruiting campaign. But news of the growing count of dead and
wounded filtered through the administration's optimistic spin, and
even the least informed and usually gullible teenagers began to
think twice about "joining up."
In order to get the young flesh "to serve" without the draft in the
almost two-million-strong armed forces, the Pentagon raised
salaries and increased benefits. From top to bottom, military
salaries jumped between three and four times in less than 20 years.
In 1981, a private, the lowest rank, earned less than $4,500 a
year. Today that same rank comes with a salary of almost $15,000. A
corporal, two short grades up, leaped from $5,000 to $22,000. In
addition, he or she gets free food, housing and clothing
uniform and discounts on most consumer goods.
Officers, many without post-graduate levels of formal education,
can earn up to $125,000 and enjoy the privileges of elite clubs,
like ski resorts in the Alps, and have private jets at their
service. High-ranking officers have servants and other perks. For
the first time in its history, the United States has a large,
standing professional army.
Teens No Longer Falling for Recruiter's Line Yet, in 2003, despite
increases in salaries, bonuses and other promises of free education
and training offered by the armed forces, the recruiters fell short
of their quotas. The once-easily gulled teenagers who fell for the
slogan "Be all you can be in the Army" began to feel the sway of
opposite stories, of how friends and family members got killed or
permanently disabled by IEDS (improvised explosive devices). The
body count and the number of wounded kept rising. By mid-October,
almost 2,000 U.S. servicemen and women had died, with estimates of
more than 20,000 wounded.
"As dimwitted as American teenagers are," a Mexican-American army
recruiter confessed to me in June in Pomona, California, "they're
not stupid enough to fall for the crap we're selling to get them to
go to Iraq or Afghanistan. Don't quote me."
I'm quoting him, but omitting his name and rank. His parents came
from Sinaloa and settled in San Bernardino, where he grew up and
decided to make an Army career after he dropped out of high school.
"It pays okay and I don't work too hard. I'd rather be here than in
Iraq or Afghanistan. I'll tell you that."
Next to his recruiting table outside the university student centre,
some undergraduates had set up a "decruiting" table offering
prospective recruits "the facts about the U.S. military," including
the numbers of dead and wounded that the two wars had already
exacted. In addition, the anti-military students "clarified" some
of the Army's offers of big loans and other supposed benefits,
which they claimed were far less than the military promised. They
had statements from some returning wounded veterans to the effect
that the Army had docked their pay and cut their benefits.
Looking South for Soldiers
Faced with shortages of manpower, the ever-inventive Pentagon began
to look abroad for fresh meat to send to Iraq. The closest
neighbours to the south make an ideal recruitment arena
widespread poverty and unemployment. The armed forces offer
citizenship to "illegals" who enlist.
In addition, young Latin American men will cost the Pentagon much
less than homegrown soldiers, just as they do when they work in the
maquilas (foreign-owned factories that produce goods mainly for the
U.S. market) rather than in U.S. factories.
Like the maquila owners, who engage contractors to find them
workers for their factories, the Pentagon also hires companies
American ones, of course to find "outsourced
mercenaries" for the Iraq occupation. Like the outsourcing of other
jobs, Third World people take positions once held by Americans at
much lower wages but higher than they could make at home.
For "illegal" Mexicans, or those who want a quick route to
citizenship, the military holds a strong attraction. Since Mexico
provides the closest and most logical recruiting arena, Mexican
"illegals" numerically outstrip all other Latin Americans living in
the United States and in Iraq itself. Some 8,000 Mexicans
have now volunteered for official military service.
Mexicans and those of Mexican descent make up more than half of the
approximately 110,000 Latinos (the rest mostly Puerto Ricans,
Dominicans and Central Americans) currently serving in the U.S.
military. In addition, almost 25,000 more Mexicans have enlisted as
a means of obtaining U.S. citizenship. "Coyotes" smuggled some of
these Mexicans who never had any "legal" documents into
the country as children.
The recruiters target high schools with heavy populations of
Mexican descent. The Marines have had particular success in their
forceful publicity campaign. They claim that youth of Mexican
origin make up 13 per cent of the Corps. But that high percentage
of Latinos also shows up in the high dead and wounded count.
Outsourcing the War
If U.S. corporations can outsource jobs, why can't the Pentagon
outsource war? For much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,
U.S. troops invaded Latin America. Indeed, not one country in the
hemisphere has escaped the presence of uninvited U.S. troops. Now,
the United States recruits Latin American troops to train in its
homeland bases and then ship to the Middle East.
In late February, Salvadoran President Elias Antonio Saca
unashamedly welcomed "his heroes," a unit of soldiers returning
from Iraq. Then he thanked President Bush while school kids
recruited for the ceremony waved flags U.S. and
Salvadoran.
These "coalition of the willing" troops represented the pay-off for
bribes offered by Washington to the rest of Latin America. Most
presidents did not bite. But those in Colombia, Costa Rica, the
Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama did
offer token forces. But most of the willing became unwilling when
the occupation of Iraq turned into a sticky situation and the
elaborate promises made by Bush didn't materialize. El Salvador,
with some 340 soldiers troops left in Iraq, is the only Latin
American country to remain in the coalition.
As most other nations withdrew their troops, and as U.S. National
Guard members began serving longer tours of duty (much to the
dismay of their families), recruiters found El Salvador a fertile
recruiting ground.
Recruiting Across Latin America
By paying Latino Americans trained in firearms and other repressive
skills up to $3,000 a month, the Pentagon's private recruiting
companies flesh out its ranks in Iraq. They're "having no problem
finding recruits," said Dan Broidy, author of The Halliburton
Agenda: The Politics of Oil and Money. He estimates the United
States has hired more than one private security professional for
every ten American soldiers in Iraq.
Contractors and even subcontractors have also recruited in Chile,
Colombia, Nicaragua and Guatemala. Because these countries have all
trained huge numbers of young men in the "science" of killing, and
other police and military-related activities, they make ideal pools
for Iraq headhunters.
But in May, 2003, no one expected to outsource the war. Indeed, the
White House heavies expected Iraqis to throw kisses and flowers at
them not a prolonged occupation that turned into a mass
graveyard and mutilation arena for U.S. servicemen and women.
Bush's triumphal "Mission Accomplished" speech on the aircraft
carrier USS Abraham Lincoln did not prepare the nation for the
sobering facts that gradually began to leak into the media.
Even before the bloody November, 2004 battle of Fallujah, which
exacted a heavy toll, Mexican families began to feel the pain of
war. The dead, and the legless, armless, eyeless and brain-dead
wounded, began to come home. On both sides of the Rio Grande,
Mexican parents shared a common anguish.
One hundred and twenty-two Latinos were among the first 1,000 U.S.
casualties in Iraq. Seventy of them were of Mexican descent.
Mercenaries Wanted
Far from the recruiting tables on high-school and college campuses,
Internet ads and word of mouth through military and ex-military
clubs have led to the recruitment of Colombiaan gunmen for work in
Iraq. The Internet is loaded with such opportunities like
this one from Hostile Control Tactics LLC of Fairfax, Virginia: "We
are seeking talented individuals willing and capable of working as
a Protective Security Specialist in a high risk environment. (Must
be willing to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan for 3mo., 6mo., and up
to 1 year). Immediate Openings Effective in September 2005
APPLY VIA OUR WEBSITE www.hctactics.com Skills required:
Individuals with prior military, law enforcement and close
protection/body-guarding experience preferred."
Another ad on www.iraqijobcenter.com tells job seekers:
"Your New career in IRAQ starts here. Posting your resume on Iraqi
Job Center, you are taking the first step to a great new career!
Post your profile and resume for FREE and find the perfect
job!"
On May 15, in the "Jobs Wanted" section of Epi Security and
Investigation Company's website, Pedro Buenano of Ecuador described
himself as "Mercenary, payed [sic] killer." He would accept work in
Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and, of course, the United Kingdom
and the United States.
Epi is based in Manta, Ecuador, and is managed by Jeffrey Shippy, a
U.S. citizen. In the case of iraqijobcenter.com, its website claims
that it "is owned and run by the private Dutch company NOURAS.
Iraqi job center offers its service for free for job seekers and
employers."
According to Pascale Mariani and Roméo Langlois, writing in
the August 26, 2005 edition of Le Figaro, Epi helped private
military companies operating in Iraq employ "over a thousand
Colombian combat-trained ex-soldiers and policemen." Some of these
men were "trained by the U.S. Navy and the DEA to conduct antidrug
and anti-terrorist operations in the jungles of Colombia" and were
"ready to work for $2,500 to 5,000 a month," said manager Shippy.
He promised "considerable savings for a high-quality product" to
his clients.
When police looked for the aggressive Shippy, they found his luxury
home abandoned. They did discover, however, that he had previously
worked for DynCorp, a private U.S. company that illegally sprayed
Colombian coca farms.
For its part, Hostile Control Tactics LLC, offered to "provide
in-depth training to individuals willing to acquire the necessary
skills to do the job." It promises salaries of "$500.00 per day
up to $1,000.00 per day." In addition, they offer "bonus pay
raises" based on a peer-review system.
Such campaigns to use private mercenaries from Latin America and
other parts of the world in lieu of U.S. troops has led to the rise
of a parallel army. More than 20,000 non-U.S. mercenaries now
supplement the regular troops in Iraq.
A Growing Private Army
On January 17, 2005, El Tiempo reported that Halliburton had
"recruited 25 retired Colombian police and army officers to provide
security for oil infrastructure in Iraq." The officers met in
Bogota in early December, "with a Colombian colonel working on
behalf of Halliburton Latin America, who offered them monthly
salaries of $7,000 to provide security for oil workers and
facilities in several Iraqi cities."
Imagine the power such pay holds in a poverty-stricken country!
Tormerly headed by U.S. vice president Dick Cheney, Halliburton is
the recipient of the largest amount of government money for Iraq
construction and, along with its subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and
Root, has been accused of overcharging and accounting
discrepancies. A Colombian government source confirmed the story,
El Tiempo reported. Halliburton officials denied it.
Blackwater, another U.S. company that trains mercenaries, sent its
pros into a Colombian military school in Bogota with permission
from the authorities. Previously Blackwater had recruited and
trained Chilean military personnel from the Pinochet days to Iraq.
No one knows the exact number of Latin American mercenaries now
serving in Iraq. But they may be almost as numerous as U.S.
troops.
Hope and Anger
In early October, my friend in the cafeteria asked me: "If they
have so many private troops from Latin America in Iraq, why do they
need my son?" She smiled sadly. "I hope Carlito he's the
older one comes home for Christmas. But he doesn't know, yet.
He's in a place called Tikrit, now, and says the locals don't seem
to like us all that much. What can I do? I pray."
Fernando Suarez does more than ask God for help. "Senor Bush," he
shouted to a California student group in the fall of 2004. "Cuantos
hijos de nosotros nesecita para lenar su tanque de gasolina?
Cuantos hijos americanos muertos nesecita para parar esta guerra
llena de mentiras? Yo no quiero mas muertes de nuestros hijos de
sus padres, esposos. Paremos esto YA!!! Señor Bush, espero
que dios le perdone, porque yo no puedo." ("Mr. Bush, how many of
our children do you need to fill your gas tank? How many dead
American children are needed to stop this lie-filled war? I don't
want more our children and wives and husbands dead. Let's stop this
right now. Mr. Bush, I hope God forgives you, because I
cannot.")
05/28/2006
At least 1,000 UK soldiers desert : Cases of soldiers
deserting the army are said to be rising
More than 1,000 members of the British military have deserted since
the start of the Iraq war, the BBC has learned. Figures for those
still missing are 86 from 2001, 118 from 2002, 134 from 2003, 229
from 2004, 377 from 2005, and 189 for this year so far. The news
comes as Parliament debates a law that will forbid military
personnel from refusing to participate in the occupation of a
foreign country, writes BBC.
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