Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Politics: Getting the vapors over privatization.

With the dramatic headline "Iraq contractors make billions on the front line," Nic Robertson displays a staggering naievity that can only be compared to someone who still sits in front of their fireplace on Christmas Eve at age 30, milk and cookies in hand, waiting for free stuff from an elf.
Private military contractors are earning billions of dollars in Iraq -- much of it from U.S. taxpayers.
Where does he think the money for all those public military contractors, like the US Army and USMC, comes from? Glenda the Good Witch?
[I]ndustry experts estimate Iraq's security business costs tens of billions of dollars.
No kidding. Did you think they were doing this for free? Out of the kindness of their hearts, maybe? See, it costs money to have guys with guns riding around in trucks guarding convoys out in indian country. It costs money whether those guys have patches that say "US Army" or "Blackwater, Inc." There are only two reasons to use the latter: A) There are not enough of the former on hand to do the job, or B) The latter can do it cheaper.

Now, personally, if I have a fixed amount of troops to use, and a fixed amount of dollars to spend, I'm going to use the military to do the things only the military can do: doing armed sweeps of terrorist-infested hamlets, dropping JDAMS on Al-Zarqawi, that sort of thing. For purely reactive, clearly defensive chores such as escorting convoys or guarding non-military facilities, I'll put contracts up for bid.

Nobody calls a Wells Fargo guard in Detroit a mercenary, do they?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

And I'll just bet Nic Robertson was one of those legions of liberals who was just thrilled at the Clinton-era military cutbacks...and who now lament that there just "enough troops" to go around in Iraq. Gee, too bad you idiots didn't think about that when you were slashing the Army from eighteen to ten active-duty divisions, hmmm? And put the burden of those missing divisions on the Reserve and National Guard formations, to boot.

And while the Air Force was being chopped literally in half, from 24 to 12 active fighter wings, and the F-llls and most of the B-52s were parked in the desert to rot.

AND while the Navy was pruned back from a 550-ship fleet with sixteen carrier battle groups...to a 300-ship fleet with barely ten.

And now Nic Robertson has the gall to be alarmed that we're forced to rely on subcontractors like Haliburton and Blackwater for combat support? Thanks to Clinton and the Democrats, we're lucky we don't have to pay them to fight the war itself.

--Wes S.

theirritablearchitect said...

Tam,

I almost wet myself at the image you painted of the 'failed launch'. Funnier still, I can actually see a few idiots doing exactly that.

They can't wrap their heads around the fact that businesses are, ya know, in business to make money. Kinda makes me want to slap one the next time one's within arms reach.

phlegmfatale said...

Apparently those defense contractors raked in billions from 1993 to 2000 (this despite cuts to our military which were tantamount to bloodletting). Clearly the Clinton administration and liberal democrats are in cahoots with Haliburton et al.
Your posts cut clean to the bone, Tam. I know a few liberal democrats I'd like to force feed reams of your writing. (Like Napoleon Hitler- my own Mr. Magoo.)