Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Working On That Baghdad Footprint


















Downsizing the U.S. Mission in Baghdad isn't really about rationing chicken wings in the embassy's dining hall after all, despite yesterday's New York Times story.

Instead, it's all about the reducing the footprint, according to remarks by Thomas Nides, Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources, at a press teleconference today. He said "footprint" seven times.

We are currently wearing men's size 20 quadruple-E extra wides, or something like that. But, if we replace enough third-country security contractors with Iraqis, buy our groceries in the local market, and always, always, always re-think our engagement (Deputy Secretary Nides also said "engagement" seven times) we will eventually fit into a more nearly normal shoe.

Read the press conference transcript here.

Evidently, most of this footprint reduction will come about by hiring fewer foreign (i.e., non-Iraqi) security contractors and replacing them with local hires. That will help in at least two ways. First, it will eliminate a leading source of aggravation for the Iraqis. Second, the mission will not have to house and logistically support so many contractors, since our local hires will go home after their shifts are over, just like a normal local guard force does at a normal mission.

Deputy Secretary Nides tap-danced around questions about the actual numbers involved here, but he did deny that we are reducing our operations by the 50 percent figure cited in the NYT's report. Beyond that, he really couldn't be too specific. However, he concluded with this:

So as we proceed over the next year, and as we look at our mission set and look at what we’re trying to achieve on the diplomatic side, my hope is, is that we’ll conclude over – in the period of time that we can consolidate some of the locations and space, and that will allow us to rely more upon local Iraqi contractors. But the most important thing is what we’re going to do is we’re going to be studying it, we’re working on it, we’re going to work very closely with our staff at our – in Baghdad and around the country, and we’re going to work with the Iraqis. They – we are a team working closely with them as we look at this diplomatic mission now and into the future.

Americans can rest assured that we have our top guys "working on it."

4 comments:

Consul-At-Arms said...

Replacing many of our "foreign" security contractors with "local" Iraqi hires will also help us reduce our diplomatic staff as well.

Of course, there'll be a spike in death benefits payouts at the same time, but you can't have everything!

Anonymous said...

That's what I was thinking...

TSB said...

The official sources are being cagey about exactly where they will cut security contractors, but, assuming it will be mostly static guards that are replaced with locals, this could be a good development.

The 'movement security' contractors might also be cut, however, in their case it seems that will be due to a big reduction in the number of movements, as the police training mission is greatly scaled back.

I've seen nothing that suggests the standards for protective security are being watered down, or even that the overall numbers of security personnel are being reduced, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

Consul-At-Arms said...

They'll pry my chicken wings from my cold, dead, fingers.