This is a subject close to my heart, and I think it deserves some attention. I respect Peter Singer’s work and I have read Corporate Warriors, and it was an interesting book about the history of security contracting. I have also read his article about the harm military contractors are doing to the current counterinsurgency(COIN) operations and it has troubled me to some degree. The article makes the case as if there is no place in today’s wars for the private industry and that we are not worth the effort. I guess my argument is that we do have a place in today’s wars, and we are performing crucial services for the US Government. But I do agree that we could be doing some harm to the overall COIN strategy and that we need to find some solutions on how to work together more efficiently.
Now my focus will be more about the operational relationship out in the field between the military companies and the military. I cannot even begin to talk about contracts or money or all of that other stuff. But what I can talk about is the operational relationship of the two, and some possible solutions to get us all on the same sheet of music so we can only enhance the war effort, and not hinder it.
As for my background, I have worked for the US Government in one capacity or another for most of my adult life. But the most relevant job to this discussion I held was as a smokejumper and forest fighter in the US wild land fire services. I fought forest fires with the Bureau of Land Management and with the Forest Service, and I witnessed the use of thousands of private industry service providers doing an amazing job providing support to these incidents. From cooking food, to cleaning clothes, to providing shelter, all the way up to fighting fires from the land and air–the private fire fighting industry does it all. I also think today’s military companies and military can learn a lot from this relationship.
What was most unique with this relationship is the fact that the services of these fire contractors could be called up at a moments notice through a dispatch center, and released at a moments notice through what is called a ‘call when needed contract’. And this call up was all based on the Incident Commander’s decision(the manager of the fire). If this commander of the fire did not need those services anymore, he would just tell them that they were no longer needed and inform the Dispatch Center that they have been released from incident. There is something remarkably simplistic about this system of command that the military companies and military can learn a lot from.