alienation news

Pentagon seeking private security firm to police Iraq

With large parts of Iraq still gripped by lawlessness and guerrilla warfare, the Pentagon is planning to hire a private security firm to arm and train thousands of former Iraqi soldiers to guard government buildings, pipelines and other important installations.
The Pentagon has been in talks with the private security firm Kroll to train the former soldiers to take over duties at spots now guarded by US soldiers. The guards would carry small-arms and be responsible for security at up to 2,000 sites.
Although the US has 150,000 soldiers in Iraq, the Pentagon admits their presence has been stretched thin, the lack of numbers exacerbated by an unexpected level of resistance from Iraqi fighters. About 150 US soldiers have been killed by hostile fire in Iraq with the toll rising almost every day.
A report from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, whose experts travelled to Iraq at the request, and expense, of the Pentagon, explicitly criticised the Bush administration for not more fully involving the international community and the United Nations in the postwar reconstruction. "The scope of the challenges, the financial requirements, and rising anti-Americanism in parts of Iraq argue for a new coalition that includes countries and organisations beyond the original war-fighting coalition," it said.