Was it that many years ago when there were occasional articles about the Marines guarding our embassies and the occupants? I haven't seen such an article in this century. Now, we have a State Department that is spending four times as much on security contractors today than it did four years ago. Is this another result of our switching to the volunteer army?
Not only is this privatization costing us more money, it has not worked out very well in Iraq in that the contractors seemingly will do anything to protect an official whether or not their form of protection hurts our cause.
And while we have increased the number of contractors dramatically, the State Department staff overseeing their work is just about the same. Sure, the staff had tons of free time four years ago, so they can easily do the right job for us now when there are so many more firms to watch. Right!
2 comments:
I watched the Jeremy Scahill interview on Bill Moyers and he said the private contractors make things way worse for our soldiers. They will wily-nily shoot up an area which makes it more dangerous for the regular troops dealing with the resentment. Morale suffers when our troops see them getting 8 times as much money. Plus he pointed out that the destruction of Fallujah (sp)was the direct result of the presence of contractors.
Me again. My neighbor's son works for DynaCorp flying helicopters in Afghanistan and not only is he making big bucks, he is on duty for 45 days and then he is home for 45 days. If you were a grunt soldier, wouldn't that fry your ass?
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