[News] Mercenaries from Latin America in Iraq

[News at freedomarchives.org]

WASHINGTON OFFICE ON LATIN AMERICA
http://www.wola.org/central_america/transf_cost_of_war_op_ed_geoff.htm


Transferring the Cost of War to Latin America

By Geoff Thale

If U.S. officials learned one lesson from Vietnam it was that
opposition at home to U.S. military intervention abroad grew as
American casualties mounted.   Now officials have found a way around
this problem -- in Iraq, U.S. contractors are recruiting people from
poor Latin American countries to carry out security tasks.

As U.S. military actions abroad have increased in the last decade,
the Pentagon has searched for ways to fight wars effectively while
minimizing U.S. casualties.   Where possible, war is conducted from
the air. In ground combat, U.S. troops are equipped with the latest
high-tech weapons and protected by the best armor.

U.S. officials seem to have hit on a new strategy to minimize U.S.
casualties:  recruit people from Latin America to do some of the
fighting.

A December 9^th Washington Post story reports that two U.S. private
security firms, under contract to the Pentagon, are recruiting in El
Salvador to fill security positions in Iraq.   And a December 12^th
report from El Tiempo in Bogota says that a major U.S. contractor is
recruiting retired Colombian military officers to work in Iraq.
Salvadorans and Colombians are being recruited to guard Embassies and
other public buildings in Baghdad, protect oil and gas pipelines, and
provide security.   This is dangerous work that was previously done by
U.S. military personnel.

Reportedly, recruitment efforts in Latin America will expand.  U.S.
contractors believe there is a pool of people in the region with
military backgrounds and training, eager to work for the wages
offered. Interestingly, the first recruits came from militaries with a
history of human rights abuses.

In El Salvador, the security firms are said to be pleased with the
candidates, many who served in the Salvadoran Armed Forces. They are
highly motivated, being paid several times what they could earn in El
Salvador, and they are cheap (less than 1/5 the cost of recruiting
U.S. civilians).

The economic logic of this is unassailable.  The U.S. military
contracts out security operations to U.S. companies who recruit
relatively low-cost Latin Americans to fill the jobs.  The contractors
keep labor costs down, thus helping their bottom line.  The Latin
Americans are poor, need the work, and benefit from what are -- by
their standards -- high salaries.  What's wrong with this?

It's deeply wrong, for both moral and political reasons.   Latin
America and other less-developed regions shouldn't serve as a cheap
labor for dangerous jobs because of a U.S. military mission in Iraq.
It may be tempting to pay people from foreign countries like El
Salvador, Colombia, or Chile, so that we don't experience the human
cost of casualties or deaths ourselves.  But it's not morally
acceptable.

It's wrong for political reasons as well.  Whether one supports or
opposes the U.S. war in Iraq, one can agree that the U.S. military
ought to bear the burden of fighting a war that the United States
initiated. Allies may join in, and send their own troops in support if
they so choose. But, U.S. military and government officials should not
be allowed to avoid paying the political cost in the United States of
the war in Iraq by hiring poor Latin Americans to risk dying while
carrying out a U.S. military mission.

In the United States, when a U.S. soldier is wounded or killed in
combat, his or her family, neighbors, and community, feel the weight
of the war in Iraq, and ask themselves, "Is it worth it?"   In a
democracy, citizens must understand the burden related to U.S.
military action abroad, feel the impact, and make the judgment about
whether it's worthwhile.

But when those who do some of the fighting and dying are not U.S.
soldiers, not members of allied military forces, not even U.S. private
contractors working for the Pentagon, but private citizens of another
country, whose injuries and deaths will have no impact on the
political debate in the United States, then democracy is being
undermined, and war is being fought without a public weighing of the
costs.

Our leaders shouldn't be recruiting Latin Americans (or others) to
stand in our place, or pay the ultimate price in U.S. military
conflicts, to avoid political debates at home.


[Geoff Thale is Senior Associate for Central America and Cuba at the
Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a non-governmental
organization that promotes human rights, democracy and sustainable
economic development in Latin America.]

Washington Office on Latin America
1630 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20009
Tel: 202-797-2171 | Fax: 202-797-2172 | http://www.wola.org




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