It is an outrage that our failed Republican president - and his crew of neo-cronies - is funneling our hard earned tax money into the bulging pockets of mercenary armies, the likes of the much maligned Blackwater USA.
Paying exorbitant rates to these corporations makes it much harder for the US military to retain well trained personnel, thereby posing a real threat to our national security. How can the Department of Defense hope to compete with cronyism-funded corporate war profiteers, and the mega salaries that they offer (and that us taxpayers end up paying for)? What can we expect after we permit our government to privatize war and war zone security and turn it into a for profit business enterprise like any other?
This is the next stage of the evolution of the Military Industrial Complex. Next up will be offshoring the soldiering itself to cheaper foreign national mercenaries with questionable histories of involvement in activities of repression, insurgency, and terrorism. Next up, after that, is the use of these private, offshored corporate instruments of force and subjugation against our very own citizens, like the use of Blackwater security personnel in patrolling streets of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Gates: Military Contractors Luring Away Many Troops
Blackwater Down (alternet.org)
Blackwater USA (sourcewatch.org)