PRIVATE MILITARY COMPANIES: SHINING A LIGHT ON OUR SHADOW MILITARY

By Stella Connaughton

In 2004, a squad of soldiers killed 17 civilians in Baghdad. Although they were wearing American flags on their sleeves, they did not count as part of the 120,000 American soldiers in Iraq at the time. Instead, they were private military contractors: private sector soldiers that the American government paid to fight on the front lines.

Private military contractors are not a rare phenomenon: 50% of soldiers in Iraq were contracted by the American government and were not officially part of the U.S military. This industry of soldiers for hire has dramatically increased; during World War 2, only about 10% of soldiers were contracted.

Private military contractors create tricky situations in regard to their role in a conflict. While they are similar to mercenaries—soldiers for hire—PMC employees generally don’t meet the restrictive definition of a mercenary. Mercenaries are considered individuals, rather than a corporate entity that a PMC is normally defined as. On the other hand, they aren’t considered part of a country’s combatant numbers. Under international law, contractors are in fact considered civilians.

The industry of private military contractors (PMCs) is troubling. The industry generates their profit from warfare (Contractors made 138 billion dollars from the Iraq War), and their inherent profit incentive puts them at odds with American foreign policy and moral ideals. Military contractors hire soldiers from poor countries to take advantage of the thousands of men willing to be contractors for as little as a thousand dollars per month. Deficon International, one of the largest private military companies in the world, is based in Peru, a country still recovering from the effects of internal fighting. Deficon targets men who have been burdened by the cost of war and live in poverty, often with no other way to get a job.

PMCs show how reliant the United States is on the private sector for warfare as well as how the private sector is reliant on warfare for business.

Military and arms contractors are one of the biggest lobbying groups on Capitol Hill. The way they get business is when the United States needs soldiers, guns, bombs, and weapons—when the U.S goes to war. The American government then puts out a bid for a contract, often totaling hundreds of billions of dollars. In 2017, the Pentagon appropriated $320 billion for contractors.

Military lobbyists perpetuate war because it creates perpetual profits for businesses. To promote war, lobbyists spread fear. Inflation of international threats in order to increase public support for the war on terror remains a Washington tradition. Today, the arms lobby pushes for deeper US intervention in countries like Syria, Iraq, and Iran. Since the United States is not required to officially count contractors in “boots on the ground” statistics, there is less political cost associated with deploying military contractors. As a result, the United States deploys more troops in a “bigger equals better” mindset, due to the sheer number of contractors available. This incentive for intervention ultimately ends up boosting terrorism. Empirically, increasing military personnel increases anti-American terror by 30%.

As seen in the mindless killings of innocent Iraqis by contractors, private soldiers are not regulated and are more likely to commit human rights abuses. Since they don’t have to be held accountable by the U.S military, they often are more aggressive and less responsible. In addition, they are rarely trained in international law and human rights. Increases usage of PMCs will turn public opinion against U.S military occupation and increases anti-American sentiment.

The United States needs to change its current approach to private military contractors to maintain U.S support in military conflicts and regain legitimacy in peace-building operations. The federal government should establish a non-partisan independent body with the task of specifically regulating and vetting private military companies and ensuring that they’re trained to properly enter combat zones and other operations.

Most importantly, the United States should enter multilateral treaties with other countries to oversee private military contractors and avoid jurisdiction issues regarding contractors abroad.

With the long-term in mind, the United States must decrease its reliance on private military companies. They’ve empirically been a huge waste in our already bloated military spending and perpetuate one of the most harmful lobbying groups in Washington. Furthermore, the United States will never be seen as a country that prioritizes democracy and peace if we continue to rely on companies that depend on warfare for profit. When the United States goes to war, the outcome doesn’t matter: the PMC industry will always win.

THE KAFALA SYSTEM

By Manaal Khwaja

Last year in April, a Kuwaiti woman recorded her Ethiopian maid clinging onto a window, then falling from the seventh floor while the maid called for help. This video gained a large amount of attention globally and in Kuwait. The maid fortunately only suffered a minimal amount of injuries, and the employer was jailed, but these actions are representative of a larger social ill plaguing the Gulf states and the greater Middle East. Migrant workers are systematically and socially dehumanized. Obviously, this employer’s inhumane actions do not categorize all Kuwaitis or the Middle East. There was an enormous amount of social media backlash from the region, and the Kuwaiti Society for Human Rights called for an official investigation of the incident. However, the employer’s actions in the video display how extreme dehumanization can be, and how dangerous it is. Even with public condemnation, the mistreatment of migrant workers continues in the region, and it is permitted legally through the kafala system.

The kafala system is a sponsorship program through which unskilled workers can enter the country if they have a sponsor, which is usually the employer. Through that relationship, the worker earns a visa and legal status. However, these sponsorship relationships often lead to exploitation. It is not uncommon for employers to take away their employee’s passport (not allowing them to leave), pay them unlivable wages, and force inhumane conditions upon them (long work days, inadequate housing, physical abuse, and general mistreatment). Such exploitation has become a backbone of economic structures in the region.

This legal system allows for the exploitation of migrants, mainly from South and Southeast Asia as well as parts of Africa. 23 million workers are affected in the countries of Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Although each country has its own specific regulations dictating the implementation of the system, the overarching purpose is to monitor migrant laborers who work primarily in the construction and domestic sectors. This system has been criticized as being modern slavery, and in many aspects it is.

The kafala system is not an overtly discriminatory system since workers are promised a contract that binds both the employer and employee. In practice, however, the contract is rarely followed by employers, nor does it have to include agreements that benefit the employee. Migrant workers don’t receive much judicial protection either, and there are no laws discouraging employers from mistreating workers. In fact, certain countries’ labor laws, such as Qatar and Lebanon, specifically exempt migrant workers from protection under the law against wage inequality, discrimination, and from paternal leave. Consequently, the migrant is bound to the kafel (sponsor), depending on them for full economic and social status.

This system further establishes a racial hierarchy and order through the continuation of colonial systems and values. Certain ethnicities (such as South and Southeast Asians and Africans) associated with migrant work are viewed as inferior. Migrant workers are considered to be at the bottom of society due to racist and classist beliefs that were exacerbated by colonialism. Such beliefs permit the continuation of the kafala system and ensure that progressive movements to change the system are hindered by social prejudices.

There has been increased discourse and pressure to alter this system, especially in the wealthier nations that currently use it. Right now, Qatar has promised to abolish the system by 2020, in time for the World Cup. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Kuwait have all also stated they aim to end this system. However, there is little evidence that reforms are underway, and what alterations have been made still permit abuse.

It is not possible for the kafala system to fully be abolished until social attitudes within these nations change. Currently, these states depend upon and have developed around low labor costs. As a result, completely recreating the economic system requires a large social component; one that recognizes human life as valuable and not just as a tool.

AN UNCONVENTIONAL TOOL OF WAR

By Daisye Rainer

In the Middle East, water is potentially the greatest weapon a state can have. The region has for decades experienced the effects of water scarcity, which has been exacerbated by a multitude of factors such as climate change and poor agricultural practices. But no factor bears the most influence on water insecurity than the region’s political conflicts.

First, populations in the Middle East are heavily dependent upon agriculture to survive and meet basic needs. In his book Farming Systems and Food Security in Africa, John Dixon calculated that approximately 70% of those living in rural areas rely on agriculture alone, and Alexandra Barton estimated that water withdrawals for farming account for 85% of total water withdrawals across the region.

But in reality, this water insecurity impacts much more than the 84 million farmers in the Middle East dependent upon water for irrigation to survive. Water is the root of so much of our world, and its decline will affect all populations in the future. For example, a lack of water harms major water-using sectors, like manufacturing, energy, and construction, which won’t be able to satisfy consumer needs and will see a decline in profit. Water, then, is crucial to not simply a country’s agricultural sector but its entire economy. And with a declining availability of water for a dependent population, it has become a tool of war.

The scarcity of the resource has increased tension among competing neighboring states, with conflict arising particularly among states who share a body of water, like the Jordan River, and has resulted in geographical and political disputes. Historically, these states have competed for water by diverting from the source at extreme rates, leading to political conflict and in even some cases, war.

But recently, the rise of extremist groups—namely ISIS—has severely impacted water security in the Middle East. Syria and Iraq present the most telling illustrations of water’s influence on political stability and politics’ influence on water security. Water here has been targeted, sequestered, and seized as means of political intimidation and deprivation. According to Globalist author Markus Heinrich and People author Lisdey Espinoza Pedraza, ISIS has launched multiple offensives since 2014 to conquer Syrian and Iraqi dams that hold enough water to sustain their respective populations. CNN also reported that ISIS-inflicted violence in Mosul, Iraq against Iraqi-led militant groups in 2016 led to the destruction of a major water line in the city, depriving half a million civilians of water. In extreme cases such as these, humanitarian aid cannot transport enough water for the millions of people affected. Political unrest and conflict have also displaced many people in the past decade, which, according to Phillip Connor of Pew, has almost doubled the number of migrants in the region and further imposed pressure and stress on the water scarcity issue.

The Middle East, especially Iraq and Syria, will continue to feel the effects of water insecurity as long as political tension exists in the region. Any direct action to combat the political groups would only aggravate conflict and possibly instigate violence against civilians. For this reason, solving this issue is a challenge: we must both seek policy solutions to safeguard the availability of water through measures such as water management reform and wrest the control of water from extremist groups who have sought to deprive their victims of earth’s most important resource.