By KAREN WALKER

James J. Lee, AFJ staff

Representatives of three companies providing private contractor services in war zones today defended their roles and said their main motivation was not money.

Doug Brooks, president of the International Peace Operations Association; Paige Craig, president of the Lincoln Group; and Doug Horn, vice president, government operations support at KBR, spoke on the role of contractors in U.S. military operations at the Armed Forces Journal annual conference, The Power & Limits of Jointness, in Washington D.C.

Horn said for the type of construction work his company provides in places like Iraq margins are “very low” – 3 percent maximum. “The bottom line is that they [private contractors] do it for more than the money,” he said. “We do it because we are committed and that’s just the way it is. We won’t make a lot of money out of it.”

Craig said his company provides an important service when it makes television shows, provides media tools and organizes regional information campaigns that are designed to influence adversaries. “There’s been a lot of controversy about what we do,” he said. “But the Internet, TV and cable are on the battlefield. They [the enemy] have the information and you can choose to influence that or ignore it, but if you ignore it you will lose. It’s no longer about tanks, aircraft and ships,” Craig said.

Brooks said the vast majority of private contractor work – some 90 percent – was to provide logistics and support service to the military. “They are doing everything from water purification to security,” he said. “They are relieving a lot of the burdens from the military and doing things that the military does not want to do.”

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