Contractors aka hired guns

Islamabad will no longer plunge headlong into doing its bidding heedless of its own interest

One of the highlights of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s recent interview to Washington Post was his emphatic remark that Pakistan ‘is not your hired gun anymore’, in a clear rebuke to the United States (US). This ‘hired gun’ appellation is used in a variety of contexts meaning either a country, an institution or an individual commissioned to fulfill a particular and often ethically dubious task. It is common knowledge that the world’s only superpower scouts around the globe to find recruits to its cause – coaxing, cajoling, or bullying - the would-be conscripts to its brigade.

The message Imran conveyed, in no uncertain terms, was that Islamabad would no longer plunge headlong into doing its bidding heedless of its own interest. Fair enough. Better late than never. Indeed, the country’s sovereignty demands that the point is driven home forcefully. But the US is in the habit of employing ‘hired guns’ nonetheless, subcontracting its work, especially in the area of security.

This fact is elucidated by a report published in our competition that sheds light on how the US employs defence contractors – the hired guns – to promote its strategic interests. According to the US Department of Defence data, at the peak of their deployment (2008-2011) contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan represented 52 per cent of the total force, averaging 190,000 contractors to 175,000 uniformed personnel. A report by the Brown University’s Costs of War Project mentioned that 90 American contractors were among the 65,000 people killed in Pakistan in the last 17 years. One can well surmise just how deep the contractors have penetrated into our midst. Private security agencies represent another facet of hired guns. A January 2010 report of the Foreign Policy notes that the top UN security official, Gregory Starr, the former head of US State Department Security, advocated an increase in the use of private security firms in Pakistan. The report notes that the UN “accelerated its move toward hired guns” in Pakistan after the Taliban launched an attack against a UN residence in October 2009, killing five UN employees.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2018.

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