One of Ours

...We have been dealing with the legal issues surrounding contractors for quite a while. In recent years the army has become more and more reliant upon contractors to do almost anything and everything for us when deployed. It really began getting big during Bosnia and Kosovo where all the basecamps and logistics functions were handled by KBR. But that really was a permissive environment compared to Iraq and the contractors were not as much at risk as they are now. We've received a number of requests from contractors to carry weapons. Not all of them are allowed to. International law prevents us from arming civilians accompanying the force. They are non-combatants who are not supposed to carry arms or wear a uniform. If we give them weapons and training then their status is even murkier. There is NO protection under international law for armed civilians in a combat zone, with one minor exception for a Levee en Masse. Otherwise they are unlawful combatants. (Note this is the same rationale applied to the detainees in Guantanamo and the reason they are called unlawful enemy combatants. We caught them in civilian clothes fighting us.) In the case of the four contractors that were killed in Fallujah. They were authorized to carry weapons since they were hired as security contractors. The authorization has to come from very high up the chain of command but they work with no legal authority. They have weapons permits that allow them to carry their weapons but they really are in no way connected with the military. This is a very tricky legal issue since the military really can't do what we're doing without contractors but we really aren't allowed to let them protect themselves.

The Geneva conventions were designed to protect civilians and soldiers on both sides of a conflict. The assumption is that both parties to a conflict will observe the rules and regulations. In Iraq it is patently obvious that our enemies have absolutely zero regard for international law. So it is a bit ridiculous for us, in this circumstance, to prevent the civilians working for us to protect themselves.