Petraeus Earns $493/day, Blackwater Manager $1,075/day

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Monday October 01, 2007 · 8:32 AM PDT

2007/10/01 · 08:32

The disparity in pay given to our enlisted soldiers compared to private contractors is criminal.

In today's Washington Post, Walter Pincus does some calculations comparing what the U.S. government pays enlisted men and private contractors. Here some initial numbers:

According to data provided to the House panel, the average per-day pay to personnel Blackwater hired was $600. According to the schedule of rates, supplies and services attached to the contract, Blackwater charged Regency $1,075 a day for senior managers, $945 a day for middle managers and $815 a day for operators...

An unmarried sergeant given Iraq pay and relief from U.S. taxes makes about $83 to $85 a day, given time in service. A married sergeant with children makes about double that, $170 a day.

Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Baghdad overseeing more than 160,000 U.S. troops, makes roughly $180,000 a year, or about $493 a day. That comes out to less than half the fee charged by Blackwater for its senior manager of a 34-man security team.

And actually the numbers of even worse than that.

Blackwater is the last a line of several subcontractors:

Understanding the contract's details requires some background: Regency was a subcontractor to another company, ESS Support Services Worldwide, of Cyprus, that was providing food and catering supplies to U.S. armed forces in Fallujah and other cities in Iraq. And ESS was a subcontractor to KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton, which had the prime contract with the Defense Department.

So, Blackwater was a subcontractor to Regency, which was a subcontractor to ESS, which was a subcontractor to Halliburton's KBR subsidiary, the prime contractor for the Pentagon -- and each company along the way was in business to make a profit.

So Blackwater should be considered a sub-, sub-, sub-contractor - a sub-contractor thrice removed I guess you would call it. So the average sub-, sub-, sub-contractor in Iraq makes an average of $600 per day, which is still more than Gen. David Petraeus, the four star general leading operations in Iraq is making. However, you have to add profit margins three times over on top of that $600 to determine exactly how much the government is paying for each of these sub-, sub-, sub-contractors.

And yet Bush threatens to veto a children's healthcare bill because it spends too much money - $35 billion over five years - and yet he'll request $190 billion for one year of this war where he's willing to pay exorbitant salaries like these. Considering Blackwater is headed by Erik Prince, a big GOP contributor, board member of Christian Freedom International, and brother-in-law to Amway CEO and Michigan GOP gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos, Bush shows no fiscal restraint because he is all for crony welfare but opposes "socialized medicine."

The fact of the matter is these private contractors outnumber the troops we currently have in Iraq because we got rid of the draft. The American people would be truly up in arms in their own children were forced to serve in this fiasco, but they don't have to worry about that. Instead, they pay through the nose for this wasteful spending and corruption and the only thing they have to sacrifice is sound healthcare for our citizens, the safety of our bridges, and - now that the crime rate is increasing because law enforcement dollars are going to fight terrorists - the safety of their neighborhoods.

Is your blood boiling yet?

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Petraeus Earns $493/day, Blackwater Manager $1,075/day

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