Mindless Thug: Private Security Contracting: Iraq-Haiti-Libya

Extract(s):
These dyslexic scribblings are not intended to be an academic, perfectly concise analysis of where and how our money and people disappeared in Iraq, how well-meaning donations have been siphoned off in Haiti or a road map to the future in Libya, and by consequence the wider Middle East...
... While journalists would completely ignore the efforts of Coalition military and civilian personnel involved in the reconstruction effort, they would salivate over the rising death toll of Coalition soldiers, most of whom were trying to protect the rebuilding of completely dilapidated, not war destroyed, infrastructure. The entire news cycle would stop for days on end in the rare event of a journalist being wounded or killed. International organisations such as the BBC and others would spend the next week paying homage to the life of this individual while soldier deaths were a mere numbers game to be spun to their next meal ticket and expense account....
... Iraq was classified as a ‘permissive environment’. The war had been won, resoundingly. Or rather, the conflict had been won resoundingly. There were periods of extreme violence in different areas of the country but there never was a war in the sense that it is generally understood. The events that followed for the next five years in Iraq was what one ex-secret service agent turned private security director referred to as ‘a misunderstanding’.
... In mid 2003 it was, as Bush put it from the deck of the aircraft carrier, ‘Mission Accomplished’. Rumsfeld had been vindicated. Coalition forces, principally the USA, had gone in and crushed Iraqi opposition within two months with only 140,000 ground troops as opposed to the 250,000 requested by Pentagon generals. Now it was time for Phase II, importing waves of construction and civil engineers to supervise and guide the grateful workers who would happily pump the oil to pay for the war to remove the dictator. Along the way dilapidated infrastructure, schools, hospitals and social institutions would also be re/built. White picket fences, straight roads, clean water and Maccas were on the way. What could possibly go wrong?