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WASHINGTON OFFICE ON LATIN AMERICA<br>
<a href="http://www.wola.org/central_america/transf_cost_of_war_op_ed_geoff.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://www.wola.org/central_america/transf_cost_of_war_op_ed_geoff.htm<br>
<br>
<br>
</a>Transferring the Cost of War to Latin America<br><br>
By Geoff Thale<br><br>
If U.S. officials learned one lesson from Vietnam it was that<br>
opposition at home to U.S. military intervention abroad grew as<br>
American casualties mounted. Now officials have found a way
around<br>
this problem -- in Iraq, U.S. contractors are recruiting people from<br>
poor Latin American countries to carry out security tasks.<br><br>
As U.S. military actions abroad have increased in the last decade,<br>
the Pentagon has searched for ways to fight wars effectively while<br>
minimizing U.S. casualties. Where possible, war is conducted
from<br>
the air. In ground combat, U.S. troops are equipped with the latest<br>
high-tech weapons and protected by the best armor.<br><br>
U.S. officials seem to have hit on a new strategy to minimize U.S.<br>
casualties: recruit people from Latin America to do some of
the<br>
fighting.<br><br>
A December 9^th Washington Post story reports that two U.S. private<br>
security firms, under contract to the Pentagon, are recruiting in El<br>
Salvador to fill security positions in Iraq. And a December
12^th<br>
report from El Tiempo in Bogota says that a major U.S. contractor is<br>
recruiting retired Colombian military officers to work in Iraq.<br>
Salvadorans and Colombians are being recruited to guard Embassies
and<br>
other public buildings in Baghdad, protect oil and gas pipelines,
and<br>
provide security. This is dangerous work that was previously
done by<br>
U.S. military personnel.<br><br>
Reportedly, recruitment efforts in Latin America will expand.
U.S.<br>
contractors believe there is a pool of people in the region with<br>
military backgrounds and training, eager to work for the wages<br>
offered. Interestingly, the first recruits came from militaries with
a<br>
history of human rights abuses.<br><br>
In El Salvador, the security firms are said to be pleased with the<br>
candidates, many who served in the Salvadoran Armed Forces. They are<br>
highly motivated, being paid several times what they could earn in
El<br>
Salvador, and they are cheap (less than 1/5 the cost of recruiting<br>
U.S. civilians).<br><br>
The economic logic of this is unassailable. The U.S. military<br>
contracts out security operations to U.S. companies who recruit<br>
relatively low-cost Latin Americans to fill the jobs. The
contractors<br>
keep labor costs down, thus helping their bottom line. The
Latin<br>
Americans are poor, need the work, and benefit from what are -- by<br>
their standards -- high salaries. What's wrong with this?<br><br>
It's deeply wrong, for both moral and political reasons.
Latin<br>
America and other less-developed regions shouldn't serve as a cheap<br>
labor for dangerous jobs because of a U.S. military mission in Iraq.<br>
It may be tempting to pay people from foreign countries like El<br>
Salvador, Colombia, or Chile, so that we don't experience the human<br>
cost of casualties or deaths ourselves. But it's not morally<br>
acceptable.<br><br>
It's wrong for political reasons as well. Whether one supports
or<br>
opposes the U.S. war in Iraq, one can agree that the U.S. military<br>
ought to bear the burden of fighting a war that the United States<br>
initiated. Allies may join in, and send their own troops in support
if<br>
they so choose. But, U.S. military and government officials should
not<br>
be allowed to avoid paying the political cost in the United States
of<br>
the war in Iraq by hiring poor Latin Americans to risk dying while<br>
carrying out a U.S. military mission.<br><br>
In the United States, when a U.S. soldier is wounded or killed in<br>
combat, his or her family, neighbors, and community, feel the weight<br>
of the war in Iraq, and ask themselves, "Is it worth
it?" In a<br>
democracy, citizens must understand the burden related to U.S.<br>
military action abroad, feel the impact, and make the judgment about<br>
whether it's worthwhile.<br><br>
But when those who do some of the fighting and dying are not U.S.<br>
soldiers, not members of allied military forces, not even U.S.
private<br>
contractors working for the Pentagon, but private citizens of
another<br>
country, whose injuries and deaths will have no impact on the<br>
political debate in the United States, then democracy is being<br>
undermined, and war is being fought without a public weighing of the<br>
costs.<br><br>
Our leaders shouldn't be recruiting Latin Americans (or others) to<br>
stand in our place, or pay the ultimate price in U.S. military<br>
conflicts, to avoid political debates at home.<br><br>
<br>
[Geoff Thale is Senior Associate for Central America and Cuba at the<br>
Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a non-governmental<br>
organization that promotes human rights, democracy and sustainable<br>
economic development in Latin America.]<br><br>
Washington Office on Latin America<br>
1630 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20009<br>
Tel: 202-797-2171 | Fax: 202-797-2172 |
<a href="http://www.wola.org/" eudora="autourl">http://www.wola.org</a>
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