Stinking To High Heaven

by: Debra

The smell of BS is quite strong, which is what happens when there is so much of it being slung by the current administration. Unfortunately, it's just one more drop in the bucket. While the 101st Fighting Keyboarders have encouraged everybody and their brother to join the military, to support the troops and the current idiot in chief, there has been a behind the scenes effort to conduct the war using a military that the citizenry were to know nothing about. But then they started dying.

It seems that we were so busy going to war with the Army we had and not the Army we wanted, that the administration arranged to buy their own private military. What would Patton, MacArthur and Eisenhower have to say about this?They are probably spinning in their graves so fast that they could be a whole new source of energy.

The security industry's enormous growth has been facilitated by the U.S. military, which uses the 20,000 to 30,000 contractors to offset chronic troop shortages. Armed contractors protect all convoys transporting reconstruction materiel, including vehicles, weapons and ammunition for the Iraqi army and police. They guard key U.S. military installations and provide personal security for at least three commanding generals, including Air Force Maj. Gen. Darryl A. Scott, who oversees U.S. military contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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The military plans to outsource at least $1.5 billion in security operations this year, including the three largest security contracts in Iraq: a "theaterwide" contract to protect U.S. bases that is worth up to $480 million, according to Scott; a contract for up to $475 million to provide intelligence for the Army and personal security for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; and a contract for up to $450 million to protect reconstruction convoys. The Army has also tested a plan to use private security on military convoys for the first time, a shift that would significantly increase the presence of armed contractors on Iraq's dangerous roads.

Outsourcing the military, what a concept. What's next a call center in India? You know, I've been wondering something. Why does the military need security? Don't they have their own weapons? Aren't they supposed to be trained to defend themselves? How did previous armies protect themselves? Isn't it enough that the lowest paid members of the military die the most often, supposedly defending democracy? But now we have new "unsung heroes" and our troops are considered to be equipment.

Wayne described security contractors as "the unsung heroes of the war." She said she believed the military wanted to hide information showing that private guards were fighting and dying in large numbers because it would be perceived as bad news.

The reason why it would be perceived as bad news, is because it is! For a variety of reasons, not the least is that with the largest military budget on the planet, we have to supplement our troops with civilian contractors in order to conduct a war? WTF is up with that?

Mr. Bush, you have destroyed our military. Hundreds of years of military history is worth nothing due to your continued incompetence. You have ruined this country in numerous ways, but what you have done to our troops went past unconscionable long ago. You forced them to go to war woefully unprepared; then you force them to go back time and again for extended stays; you have left the heartland of America unprotected by keeping the National Guard in a country that isn't their nation; you haven't taken good care of the troops who are injured, both physically and mentally; you refuse to acknowledge those who have made the ultimate sacrifice; and now you have shamed us and them by using mercenaries to do the jobs that our troops volunteered for, and then like everything else in your misbegotten administration, you tried to cover it up. Shameful doesn't quite cover your crimes against the United States, but treason does.

Fortunately for you, Americans just don't get as worked up as the Romanians, we just complain until the next election. And if history is any guide, we elect someone worse.

Where the heck is the Xanax when you need it? Debsweb