Looking For A Few Good Men... Sort Of

Even though I work in the security industry I’ve never been a big fan of the PSDs (Personal Security Detachments) and how they go about their business. I understand their job and its requirements, but I’ve always held that many are way too aggressive simply because they believe they can be, and many of the contractors working on the roads have no place whatsoever being there.

There are very few requirements needed to become a security contractor. Granted many companies vet their people as best they can and have established a baseline of required training and experience. Given, however, the need to fill slots in order to remain contract compliant some firms are signing on people that have the barest of qualifications. In theory you can be a volunteer fireman with two years of Army National Guard experience playing in the band, working the gun counter at Wal-Mart, and the next week be manning an automatic weapon on a gun truck in downtown Baghdad.

Now, with the Blackwater incident, it is all coming to light here in Iraq and around the world. The media has turned its lens on the PSDs and is now scrutinizing every single incident. Where the media goes the U.S. Congress will soon follow, and there will be a dramatic change in how at least U.S. government contracts are let in the future.