Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Profits from the Iraq War

Privatization of government services is the most dangerous facet of the conservative agenda. Forget the dirty subways, collapsing bridges, failing schools, and corporate welfare, the problem of privatizing our military is dangerous and expensive.

I heard on the radio this morning that one dollar of five spent on the Iraq War (20%) is spent on private contractors who are providing services like cooking, bodyguards, and transportation. At up to twenty times the cost of having the military provide the same service.

Since when is the military unable to cook? Provide security? Drive trucks?

This is taking Reaganomics too far, and it endangers our national security far more than a band of mujaheddin, the homosexual agenda, all the abortionists, and rising energy costs combined!

I think it's extraordinarily dangerous when a nation begins to outsource its monopoly on the use of force and the use of violence in support of its foreign policy or national security objectives," says veteran U.S. Diplomat Joe Wilson, who served as the last U.S. ambassador to Iraq before the 1991 Gulf War.

If we are allowing private corporations to operate as a military with impunity, who is to say where they will wage war, and for whom, next?

Outsourcing the military has never been a good idea and it is becoming increasingly dangerous as the conservatives are allowed to implement their corporate agenda without any oversight.

They've done it brilliantly: gut government agencies to prevent oversight, then privatize all the services, and there are no inspectors or auditors to get in the way of the fierce profiteering so lovingly adored by the right-wing.

Read this excellent article by Jeremy Scahill: Flush with Profits from the Iraq War, Military Contractors See a World of Business Opportunities.

People of America, your nation has been stolen from you.

Pay attention. Let your Congressional delegation know how you feel about the war and military spending.


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