Studies criticize dependence on entrepreneurs in war zone since 9/11

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According to a poll released Monday, up to half of the $ 14 trillion spent by the Pentagon since September 11 has gone to trade defense contractors. Much of that money went to arms suppliers, but the study points out that it relies on contractors for warzone missions, especially since it contributes to failures. missions in Afghanistan. He is.

After the 9/11 war, American companies under contract with the Pentagon not only handled the logistics of war zones, such as the execution of fuel convoys and Chauline personnel, but also missions such as training and l equipment of the Afghan security forces. You have done important work. The month the Taliban swept the country.

Within weeks, and before the US military completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban easily routed the Afghan government and troops, who spent 20 years and billions of dollars for the Americans to rise up. President Joe Biden blamed Afghanistan itself head-on. “We gave them all the opportunities,” he said last month. “What we couldn’t offer them was the will to fight.

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But what role did Americans play on private entrepreneurs in the post 9/11 war, like William Hartung, author of the Brown University War Costs Project and the Center for International Policy Monday study? It indicates that it is essential to research. In Afghanistan, contractors have reportedly paid warlords and the Taliban themselves for protections, and the Pentagon has insisted the Afghan Air Force be equipped with complex Blackhawk helicopters and other planes.

“If it was all about money, that would be outrageous enough,” Hartung, director of the arms and security program at the International Policy Center, said of an example of the dependence of the government. Pentagon with regard to subcontractors which has turned against it. Noted. “But the fact that it undermined the mission and endangered the military is even more exorbitant.”

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Earlier this year, Afghanistan and Iraq also had many more contractors than the US military, before Biden began his final US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

In the United States, approximately 7,000 military personnel have died in all conflicts since September 11, but approximately 8,000 contractors have died. This is estimated by another war costs survey.

Since September 11, 2001, US authorities have attacked private contractors as part of the US military response.

It all started with former Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney, then vice president. As of 2008, Halliburton had received more than $ 30 billion to support the establishment and operation of bases, military food supply and other operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the study. Chainy and defense contractors argued that relying on private contractors for work performed by military personnel in previous wars made the U.S. Army Trimmer more efficient and profitable.

By 2010, Pentagon spending had soared by more than a third as the United States waged a double war in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the United States since September 11, politicians have fought to show support for the military in countries that have become much more secure.

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“Parliamentarians who do not vote for the money needed to protect the country will be looking for new jobs after November of next year,” Harry Stonecipher, then vice president of Boeing, told the Wall Street Journal. .. One month after the attack.

And up to a third of the Pentagon contract went to just five arms suppliers. For example, last year Lockheed Martin alone earned 1.5 times the total Pentagon budget from the Defense Department contract.

The Pentagon has sent out more contracts than it can oversee, lawmakers and government special investigators have said.

For example, Republican officials in Florida said the study made millions of dollars when the United States signed its own contract with a fleet to transport fuel from Jordan to Iraq, saying lawmakers were calling for excess profits. ing. The electrocution of at least 18 servicemen due to improper wiring of the Iraqi base was in part due to major contractors Kellogg, Brown and Route, and numerous government investigations have highlighted crude logistics and reconstruction work. . It was another matter.

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The Taliban’s spectacular victory in Afghanistan last month even drew attention to dire consequences. The use of contractors by the United States may have exacerbated the difficulties of the Afghan security forces.

Jody Vittori, a former Carnegie International Peace Fund air force colonel and academic from a corrupt and vulnerable state who was not involved in the investigation, insists the air force Afghan will use American-made helicopters. He points out that there is. Afghanistan preferred a Russian helicopter which was easier to fly, could be serviced in Afghanistan, and suited the rugged Afghanistan.

When U.S. military contractors pulled out knowing how to maintain an aircraft with the U.S. military this spring and summer, senior Afghan leaders deprived the United States of a vital advantage over Tullivan. He complained violently.

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Hartung, like everyone else, is also the number the United States has poured into Afghanistan as one of the main reasons the US-backed Afghan government has lost public support and Afghan fighters have lost. the moral. It points to the corruption caused by a loosely controlled billion dollars.

Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state under President Barack Obama, accused defense contractors of resorting to payments to armed groups in the war zone and accused protection racketeering with Taliburn’s biggest . In fact one of the sources of funding.

The United States has also relied, in part, on defense contractors to accomplish one of Afghanistan’s most important hopeful tasks. Support the establishment and training of Afghan troops and other security forces capable of confronting militant groups, rebels, including the Taliban.

Needless to say, Vittori said most of the fighting with the Taliban in the past month was waged by Afghan commanders who were regularly trained by US special operations forces and other forces.

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Vittori said he was less dependent on private contractors and that relying on the US military as in past wars could have made the US more likely to win in Afghanistan. She said that meant the US president would accept the political risk of sending more US troops to Afghanistan and collecting more US military body bags.

“By using subcontractors, the United States was able to wage a war that many Americans forgot we were waging,” Vittori said.

Copyright 2021 AP communication. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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