U.S. troops quit Iraq, but large U.S. presence remains
Share Now on:
U.S. troops quit Iraq, but large U.S. presence remains
Kai Ryssdal: President Obama went to Fort Bragg, N.C., today. It’s the latest in a series of public events marking the end of the war in Iraq. American troops will be gone by New Year’s Eve.
But plenty of Americans will still be there. Diplomats working at, and thousands of contractors guarding, the U.S. Embassy. Marketplace’s Nancy Marshall Genzer reports.
Nancy Marshall Genzer: State Department staff will be staying on when U.S. troops pull out of Iraq. But they certainly won’t be alone.
Mark Toner: An overall diplomatic presence in 2012 will be about 15,000 to 16,000.
That’s State Department spokesman Mark Toner at a briefing earlier this month. And yeah, you heard him right. He said 15,000 to 16,000 people will be working in Iraq, under the auspices of the State Department. No small number.
John Pike heads up the military information website, globalsecurity.org.
John Pike: That’s got to be 10 times bigger than any other American embassy. The equivalent of the total embassy staff of every other American embassy on the planet.
And all but 2,000 of them will be contractors. Contractors will guard the massive U.S. embassy in Baghdad, as well as several consulates in Iraq. They’ll ferry diplomats around in helicopters and treat them in State Department hospitals.
Todd Harrison is a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He says contractors will also be in charge of logistics.
Todd Harrison: Food, clean water. You name it. All the things that you need to support a miniature army of 15,000 people.
That miniature army will be operating on a shoestring. The State Department budget request for 2012 includes only around $5 billion for operations in Iraq — a fraction of the $46 billion Harrison says we spent this year.
Dov Zakheim was an undersecretary of defense in the administration of George W. Bush. He wonders if that’s enough for proper oversight.
Dov Zakheim: The State really only has a couple auditors out there. It’s a large country. All these contractors all over the place. Who’s going to see what they’re doing? I don’t know how State’s going to do it.
One way State could do it? Hire more contractors to supervise all the other contractors.
In Washington, I’m Nancy Marshall Genzer for Marketplace.
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
