Private contractors are a growing force in war zones

By Andrew Gray

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraqi anger over guards from the U.S. Blackwater security firm it accuses of killing Iraqi civilians has highlighted the growing practice of using private companies to fill roles once performed by soldiers.

As Western governments have shrunk their armies but continued to wage war, they have increasingly turned to contractors to fill the gaps, providing everything from food to intelligence analysis.

To their supporters, these companies bring private sector efficiency to a combat zone and allow troops to focus on their main mission of fighting a war.

To their detractors, they are a poorly regulated shadow army that operates outside the law.

These companies started to grow and multiply after the end of the Cold War when the United States and other Western nations slashed the size of their militaries.

Business boomed when the United States went to war in Afghanistan and especially Iraq.

"We took a trend that was developing and put it on steroids," said Peter Singer, a Brookings Institution analyst who has written a book on private military companies.

The United States had a vast need for manpower but did not have the forces in its volunteer armed forces or its allies to provide them, Singer said.

"What happens when you have a gap between supply and demand? Someone tries to fill it," he said.

In the Baghdad incident involving the North Carolina-based Blackwater, 11 people were shot dead. It was only the latest case in which allegations have been made against security contractors in Iraq and Singer said the sector needed more regulation and a greater willingness to enforce the rules.

"The only reason this is making the news is because the Iraqi government, basically, reacted after long years of inaction on the U.S. part," he said.

The Baghdad government said initially it would withdraw the license for Blackwater to operate in Iraq and would review the status of all security contractors.

In the U.S. Congress, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the number two in the Democratic leadership in the Senate, said on Tuesday it was time to "lift the lid" on the contractors, and openly investigate their numbers and just what they do.

MORE CONTRACTORS THAN U.S. TROOPS?

Although no one has an exact figure, there may be around 180,000 contractors in Iraq alone, said Doug Brooks, president of the International Peace Operations Association, a trade group for private security and logistics companies.