Polis criticizes 'outsourcing' of war after trip to Iraq
By Tillie Fong, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published November 29, 2007 at 12:30 a.m.
A trip to Iraq convinced congressional candidate Jared Polis that the situation there is "a basket case."
"Getting into Iraq is easier than to get out of Iraq," he said, referring to his trip and to the state of affairs in that country.
Polis, a Democrat running for the 2nd Congressional District seat, traveled to Jordan and Iraq last week to get a firsthand look at the effects of the Iraq war.
He held a town meeting Wednesday at the Dairy Center in Boulder to share his insights and experiences.
One thing that struck him almost immediately, Polis said, was the widespread use of private contractors, such as Blackwater and Triple Canopy, by the American military.
"We are outsourcing this war," he said. "American use of mercenaries is more widespread than (previously) indicated."
All the checkpoints he went through in Baghdad were manned not by American or Iraqi soldiers but by Triple Canopy employees, he said.
Moreover, he said, the contractors seem to owe their allegiance to individual companies rather than to any nation. "They don't wear flags of a nation state on their sleeves, they wear the flags of their companies," Polis said.
He said he had a chance to talk to some of the Triple Canopy employees, many of whom came from countries like Angola, Chile, Peru, the Philippines and South Africa.
Polis said if he is elected to Congress, he would introduce a bill banning the American use of "mercenaries" for combat roles.
He also said he was acutely aware while he was in Iraq that Americans were considered occupiers, and that there was always that underlying tension.
"It is a war zone," he said. "There are people who would rather shoot you than talk to you," he said.
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November 29, 2007
4:47 p.m.
Suggest removal
smcbri1 writes:
Clearly Mr. Polis doesn't understand the underlying fundamentals of outsourcing. Contracting out mundane tasks such as security, allows you to concentrate on your core competencies like torture, waterboarding and playing wack-a-mole with insurgents.