Feature, Not A Bug
Sep 28th, 2007 at 4:10 pm by Susie
Krugman on Blackwater mercenaries:
And the danger out-of-control military contractors pose to American forces has been obvious at least since March 2004, when four armed Blackwater employees blundered into Fallujah in the middle of a delicate military operation, getting themselves killed and precipitating a crisis that probably ended any chance of an acceptable outcome in Iraq.
Yet Blackwater is still there. In fact, last year the State Department gave Blackwater the lead role in diplomatic security in Iraq.
Mr. Singer argues that reliance on private military contractors has let the administration avoid making hard political choices, such as admitting that it didn’t send enough troops in the first place. Contractors, he writes, “offered the potential backstop of additional forces, but with no one having to lose any political capital.” That’s undoubtedly part of the story.
But it’s also worth noting that the Bush administration has tried to privatize every aspect of the U.S. government it can, using taxpayers’ money to give lucrative contracts to its friends — people like Erik Prince, the owner of Blackwater, who has strong Republican connections. You might think that national security would take precedence over the fetish for privatization — but remember, President Bush tried to keep airport security in private hands, even after 9/11.
So the privatization of war — no matter how badly it works — is just part of the pattern.
Yeah, business as usual, but we, collectively, express little, if any outrage to our elected representatives. I’m sure that my representative, the “Blue Dog” Bud Cramer is tired of hearing from me. One of my Senators, Richard Shelby (R-Al) takes delight in expressing his arrogance and disdain for my thoughts on whatever position I try to call him on. My other Senator, Jeff Sessions (R-Odious-Al) normally will not even deign to respond to my e-mails to him. Sessions is up for re-election this year and will most probably be re-elected and will be able to perform his elected task as an embarrassment to the state of Alabama, not to mention humanity!
As a Vietnam era veteran I am appalled at what we have let our government become! I have an uncle who is retired from the U.S. Army. He was involved in all of the very early Army missile programs. He clearly and succinctly realizes what a disaster this occupation of Iraq was from the beginning and he is now in his latter 80’s.
George W. bush=miserable failure!