"Defense" Contractors are Legitimate Targets of War

         The American government and military use “contractors” in many of their operations, from everything to intelligence gathering to weapons designing to direct combat. I put the word “contractors” in quotations because the American government and military like to call them that. It’s a nice, cute, sophisticated, professional term that doesn’t signify anything bad at all. Contractors can be hired to do anything from yard work to construction, so calling these people contractors doesn’t give away the fact that they are doing functions that had been reserved for either a government or a military for most of human history. They are civilians hired by the American government to do their dirty work: spy on other civilians around the world, “extract information” from them, (a.k.a. torture them, but Americans don’t torture, remember? They simply “extract”), and “enhance mission success”, (a.k.a. kill people).

          In recent times, the question have come up “If two countries are fighting each other, obviously each other militaries are legitimate targets for the other one to attack, but are their contractors, their spies, their weapon manufacturers, who are legally civilians by the way, are they legitimate targets of war?”

          If it’s a hypothetical situation, almost everyone, including Americans, will say “yeah, they’re legitimate targets. They’re helping the war effort. They’re enforcing state oppression, they’re engineering weapons that are killing people,” etc, etc, whatever the case may be. But when it’s Americans that we’re talking about, suddenly a lot of Americans jump on their big superiority complex, and start calling every attack against their spies, their torturers, their kidnappers, their weapon manufacturers, even their own soldiers, a terrorist attack. Americans, (and their Western allies), are just so fucking special that they honestly believe that ordinary rules and logic doesn’t apply to them.

          Let me give you scenarios in which this arrogance is displayed:

·         American soldiers kill a Taliban spy. Americans view that as a legitimate kill. After all, we’re at war. But as soon as the Taliban kill an American spy, they go crying, calling it a terrorist attack and how all Muslims are backward, barbaric terrorists.

·         American soldiers kill a Taliban soldier that was torturing an American for information. Americans view that as a legitimate kill. But as soon as the Taliban stage a night raid on an American base, and kill an American who was a torturer, they go crying, calling it a terrorist attack and how all Muslims are backward, barbaric terrorists.

·         American soldiers kill a Taliban insurgent in a combat operation, an ambush, whatever the case may be. Americans rightly view that as a legitimate kill. That is what war is supposed to be: soldiers killing soldiers, (not soldiers killing civilians, that’s fucking terrorism). But when a Taliban soldier kills an American soldier in a covert sneak attack, or as some people like to call it “blue on green” attacks, Americans go crying, calling it a terrorist attack and how all Muslims are backward, barbaric terrorists.

          You can’t agree with a statement when it doesn’t involve your countrymen, and then suddenly not agree with the exact same statement when it does involve your countrymen. Either you view that contractors are legitimate targets of war, or not. That’s it. What country they are from should not influence your decision at all, because if you do that, you create an alternative reality where Americans can do anything and do nothing wrong, and their enemies aren’t allowed to do the exact same things and everything they do is wrong.

          Furthermore, you can’t dish out pain and death, and then cry foul when someone fights back. You cannot be a contractor who is furthering the foreign occupation of Afghanistan, and then cry “terrorist attack!” when the Taliban attack you. It doesn’t work that way. If you’re designing a Predator drone to give to the Israelis to attack unarmed men, women and children in schools and mosques, you can’t say “Oh, those Palestinians just hate Americans because of who we are” when Palestinians and other peoples protest the sale of drones to Israel. It doesn’t work that way.

          In conclusion, even though contractors are still legally civilians, they perform many functions that make them legitimate targets of war. What implications does it have for us? Well, for people like in the New York City area, or Washington Metro area, or near Los Angeles, etc, there are a lot of contractor buildings near your homes, your businesses, your schools, etc. That means there are legitimate targets of war right next to where you live, go shopping, etc. Are you okay with that? Do you feel safe? After all, if someone wanted to attack the U.S. legitimately, that means there could possibly be attacks right next to you. Are you okay with the fact that the arrogant, selfish U.S. foreign policy is putting you and your family at risk? After all, if the defense contractors acted legitimately and in accordance with international law and the laws of war, they would be doing nothing wrong, so there would be no reason for anyone to attack them. Are you okay with your neighbors going to work to design weapons to give to dictators, or designing new torture methods to skirt around international laws, and then coming home and acting like a normal person around you and your family? After all, they’re legitimate targets of war. They’re pretty damn close to you. Do you feel safe?    

 (picture is of private security contractors in Afghanistan, and is from foreignpolicyblogs.com).