What Smith had blundered into is one of the most disturbing developments of the post-9/11 world: the growth of a national security industrial complex that melds together government and big business and is fuelled by an unstoppable flow of money. It takes many forms. In the military, it has seen the explosive growth of the contracting industry with firms such as Xe, formerly known as Blackwater, or DynCorp increasingly doing the jobs of professional soldiers. In the world of intelligence, private contractors are hired to do the jobs of America’s spies. A shadowy world of domestic security has grown up, milking billions from the government and establishing a presence in every state. From border fences that don’t work to dubious airport scanners, spending has been lavished on security projects as lobbyists cash in on behalf of corporate clients.
[...]
Contractors form huge parts of the lines of supply for American troops. But they also fly planes, provide security and take on big infrastructure projects. Next year, as US combat troops draw down from Iraq, an estimated 5,000 private contractors will provide security on behalf of the US state department. That’s a deployment roughly the size of an army brigade.Worldwide, the ratio of contractors to US soldiers in uniform is about one-to-one. During Vietnam it was one-to-eight. It has speeded up since 9/11. “In the last 10 years, spending at the Pentagon has shifted enormously to contractors,” said Pratap Chatterjee, a fellow at the Centre for American Progress and industry expert.
[...]
Oversight of contracting is weak or opaque – and is often contracted out, too. One recent investigation found $4.5bn of contracts awarded to firms with a history of problems or which had violated laws. A federal audit found an oil firm had overcharged the Pentagon by $204m for fuel in Iraq.
Reading this, I can’t help but think the acceleration of the war/business complex is responsible for much, if not most of the ills of the last ten years in the States. Without such a gigantic money sink going from the government directly to corporations, without such callous disregard for human life to the end of increasing the profits of a certain business model, we might not be seeing the decline and fall of the American empire. The terrorists won. They were playing a long con, and they won. I’m sorry.
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sinned34
September 7, 2011 at 12:40 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The terrorists won by giving American politicians exactly what they desire: a nebulous enemy that they can project all their fears on in order to enable them to funnel trillions of dollars to corporations who will, in turn, push millions of dollars back at the politicians so that they can keep themselves in elected office.
The USA ignored Fezzig’s first great blunder: never get involved in a land war in Asia. Afghanistan was the anvil that broke the USSR, and the United States did not learn from the Russian mistake. Since the end of the cold war, American military spending has pretty much doubled. Coupled with a powerful minority screaming for austerity measures for the unwashed masses while corporations roll in record profits, and you have a recipe for societal breakdown.
The military industrial complex continues consume the American way of life alive, while larger numbers of their citizens lose their homes and begin to starve in the streets.
America is finished, and they have nobody to blame but themselves.
Art
September 7, 2011 at 5:17 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
If these contractors provided useful functions and security utility at comparable prices to what it cost for the regular military it would be acceptable. But these organizations don’t.
The local military establishment typically has to allocate resources and personnel to protect, and often rescue, these private contractors. The hotdogs make the money, and are often abusive to the locals, but when they come under fire they always get help from the regular military. The same people who end up paying reparations, smoothing ruffled feathers, and generally apologizing and taking complaints about what the contractors did.
The military also doesn’t know what to do with these guys. They aren’t under military command and control. The local base commanded can’t force them, or even allow them, to stand watch. And if the base comes under attack he can’t tell them to fight. Fact being that he usually has to allocate someone to make sure these hotshots hunker down and stay out of the way. Men are in short supply to man the barricades so providing babysitters for part-time heroes is galling.
On the peaceful side of things, contractors that provide cafeteria and laundry services, the cost effectiveness is, according to OMB, a wash. Back in WW2, up until the last years of Vietnam, when privatizing became the fashion, the military had soldiers and sailors provided housekeeping and maintenance functions.
Simple fact is you don’t save money having a contractor take over. Doing so also complicates things in a military environment. Several times in WW2, when things got tough, the local commander used rear echelon troops to plug holes. Soldiers all they had gone through boot camp and knew which end of a rifle to point at the enemy. They were also under local command. They could be ordered to stand watch and fight.
As it is now, if a base in Iraq comes under serious attack the local commander can’t call out the cooks to man the walls. They are civilian employees of a subcontractor and they don’t know jack about combat.
On the other hand contracting out services to the military is much more profitable than having a larger military that does its own laundry, slings its own hash, and paints its own vehicles. Which explains why it is the way it is.
sinned34
September 8, 2011 at 6:23 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
My guess is they’re gonna recommend to come up with some ridiculous weapon or search algorithm that lets you pick potential terrorists out of the general population (but only if they’re not WASPs!) and sell it to the DoD, or join a Ponzi scheme selling noni juice.
Jason Thibeault
September 9, 2011 at 1:09 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sinned: I already spammed the comment, but yeah, I’ve noticed that since moving to FtB, more spam’s coming through. Different spam, too. Akismet must be working overtime with FtB — there’s easily ten times more spam traffic than comment traffic at any one time. At my old domain, it was more like six times.
sinned34
September 9, 2011 at 1:28 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
You’re a bigger target now, Jason. Spammers want to get in on the gold rush that is the clientele of Lousy Canuck!
Blackwater Watch » Blog Archive » The Legacy of 9/11 | Lousy Canuck
September 7, 2011 at 2:03 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] Read more… [...]
Wedding Rings
March 5, 2012 at 8:01 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
You should check this out…
[...] Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine a few unrelated data, nevertheless really worth taking a look, whoa did one learn about Mid East has got more problerms as well [...]……