A Chicago Tribune article details a new order from General Casey in Iraq ordering contractors to stop enslaving people from other nations, known as "third country nationals" in Iraq. My commander in Iraq always warned us to treat them decently because "there is no faster way to make a terrorist than to piss off a TCN." In the end though - they were still dehumanized and not well treated and no one took the time to ask many questions about how they got there and how they lived.
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Chicago Tribune article printed here details General Casey's new order that will essentially free thousands of persons indentured by the American military occupation in Iraq.
WASHINGTON - The top U.S. commander in Iraq has ordered sweeping changes for privatized military support operations after confirming violations of human-trafficking laws and other abuses by contractors involving possibly thousands of foreign workers on American bases, according to records obtained by the Chicago Tribune.
The article discusses memos named "Subject: Prevention of Trafficking in Persons in MNF-I" and "Withholding of Passports, Trafficking in Persons" issued by Casey's office and details one Contracting Command colonel's efforts to put language into contracts that will forbid these types of practices in the future. It also follows the heartbreaking story of twelve men that thought they were going to work in a top hotel and ended up as murdered hostages in Iraq.
This is a fine step but so very late in this game. It comes so late that it makes me question the motives of the command and the national leadersship that will be required to successfully implement and support this. To truly enforce an order like that will significantly raise the price of many contracts in Iraq. So many of the TCNs ("third-country-national") live in impoverished squalor and substandard conditions for America in Iraq that to correct the situation will require a major effort and big costs. Surely General Casey realizes this. But then - he would have had to realize how and why they were living and working in Iraq for the last three years. Perhaps he just "got his bottle full" or perhaps he was wasrned that the situation was going to attract some big and negative attention. A more cynical guess might be that by adding real personnel costs to contracts - KBR and others could squeeze a few more dollars out of soon-to-perish cost plus contracts.
In any event - it is a good step that this has changed but I think it could mean some rather important changes in the cost or services delivered in Iraq. The story of many of these workers needs telling. If we are to really bring "freedom to Iraq" it shouldn't be with slaves. Tom DeLay and his crowd might be proud of paying women in Malaysia two bucks an hour and treating them like servants but we should not. And we shouldn't be satisfied when it happens in Iraq or Afghanistan in our names either.