Our Mercenary Soldier Contractor Mess

10/12/2007

Paul Munnis


Another bad legacy from Donald Rumsfeld is this nightmare of private military contractors.

In order to save taxpayers money Rumsfeld opted for private contractors to manage the logistical affairs of the U.S. military. In doing this he has set off a bidders-war for trained military people and that is costing taxpayers dearly.

The original idea was innocent enough, “why have troops on a career path as cooks?” Instead why not hire contractors to do the cooking and keep military membership for fighting men and women? We can hire contractors to do these menial tasks cheaper. Look at how much we save when they are responsible for their own clothing, food, transportation, and retirement. Etc., etc., etc.

Yes, it was a good cost-effective idea. The idea had merit on the surface for achieving budget cost savings and it had even further merit when troops are in garrison during peace time and where military bases are nice and safe. In those conditions the contracted for services are pretty low-cost and they can be paid for at local economy rates.

But in a war zone with private contractors doing all sorts of military escort services under life threatening conditions then that notion has necessitated using armed contractors and conducting armed activity and paying for the risks these contractors take. We have also had “contractor creep” arising from the desire for more and more contractor services.

Some of these contracts required our Army to provide contractors with military escorts to conduct convoy duty for such things as oil delivery from Kuwait to our military depots in order to supply fuel hungry armored tanks. So our fighting troops had to do the escort work of protecting these convoys.

Our field commanders were incensed and we paraphrase them: “U.S. Army troops did not sign on to do police work and escort duty. These are highly trained fighting troops and they should to be used in offensive soldiering and not for civilian police duties. Let the Iraqi’s provide the policemen.”

The trouble is that these are the only troops that we have in America and they had to do double duty in a combat zone. When we occupied Baghdad the troops said in effect: “There, we have done our job – we are now done.” They turned their backs on rioting and looting – after all they were not there as cops.

Troops did not like escorting contractors making eight times more money per month then they were getting. It was but a small step to require the contractors to provide their own armed escorts. So began “contractor mission creep.”

Then the use of contractors for armed work was extended to other branches of the government in need of armed escorts, such as our State Department – more contractor mission creep -- and now the idea has gone out of control and has totally backfired. There is a supply / demand imbalance now and that has caused mercenary wages to spiral upwards and out of control creating a bidding war for military mercenary services..

Like much of the GOP planning they have not thought it through and put meaningful rule making and restrictions in place to control the original proposition. These GOP planners are all supposed to be people that understand economics yet they have put less thought into this than a businessman opening an ice cream stand does to protect his investment.

Thus when taken to its logical conclusion it is clear that the GOP has created a monster.

Take Blackwater as an example.

They are a fighting force all unto themselves. They are mercenary. They have armed troops complete with private armed helicopters that guard State Department personnel. They are accountable to nobody in a combat zone. They are not held accountable to any law. They do as they please and it has lead to incredible abuse of power, wanton killing, and an arrogant response to Congress. In their service to our diplomatic corps they are creating a diplomatic crisis. Iraq wants them out of their nation and who can blame them?

These contractors pay their people way better than the U.S. military pays our people and so we have been losing our skilled mercenary soldiers to mercenary contractors. That has set off a wage competition for soldiering skills and the taxpayer is getting screwed as a result for we pay both the soldier and the contractor.

What we want is a low cost military force and what we are getting is a bidding war for trained military services. First we recruit a soldier, then we train him, then we lose him to Blackwater where he is paid several times more than if he were serving in our mercenary military.

Little of this has anything to do with national service or with serving our country. It has everything to so with pure dollar and cents considerations by all parties concerned.

All of this sentiment of “Support Our Troops,” is misdirected patriotic sentiment because our troops are not draftees or even voluntary soldiers enlisting from a tradition of patriotic service to our country. Our troops are paid mercenary soldiers and are in a bidding war for their services.

Our troops are paid mercenary soldiers who are loyal to whoever writes their paychecks. They are for sale to the highest bidder. We have an Army for hire and if Canada offered better wages and we couldn’t meet the price then they could very well go to work for the other bidder once their contract expired.

By the way Canada has a mercenary force too and their Canadian dollar has just reached parity with the American dollar so what we are saying here is not far-fetched.

We have lost our military service ethic, destroyed a tradition of national service, and created a cash-crazed monster in its place. Remember all of this was justified to save a buck for taxpayers.

What’s more, we have given our soldiers military benefits that no Republican would ever grant to a civilian employee such as life-time employment, guaranteed income levels, a cushy job in times of peace, plus incredible early retirement programs. Military families are well cared for by the taxpayer. When living on post they are living in tax free homes and when off post they are paid a per-diem allowance. They pay no state taxes on their wages. They have nice subsidized housing, low cost food, and they get great PX services. We have given wonderful healthcare benefits for both them and their families and we are falling all over our selves to grant them ever more military benefits and bonuses at both our State and Federal level. National guards and Reserve units are also paid mercenary troops.

Rumsfeld has created a monster and we are stuck feeding it. It reminds one of the plant that became addicted to human blood in the play: “Little House of Horrors.” Now it must be fed – who will volunteer their blood to keep the plant alive?

Congress is feeding politically off of our misplaced sentiment of “Support Our Troops,” who are so much better off than blue-collar workers who pay taxes that it isn’t funny.

In seeking to garner votes Congress is giving away the grocery store to mercenaries and doing nothing to remove the bidding wars for military contract services except authorizing six-figure bonuses for staying in the U.S. Army rather than having our mercenaries join Blackwater and others like them.

As we work to rebuild our military and redesign the very concept of defensive and offensive capability then we need to take a good hard look at the mess created by these GOP wags and that we are now sucked into and perpetrating in the name of “patriotism.”

These guys are not patriots they are mercenaries who will fight for whichever side pays them the best wage. Once we get that firmly in place in our thinking then what to do from there becomes a much easier task for we are faced with a need to redesign our military and it’s time to get our heads straight on the matter.

The WWII and Korean sentiment of supporting a civilian soldier who was drafted into mandatory military service is misplaced in this day and age of paid mercenaries working for the highest bidder.

We must either take control of these mercenaries or replace them with citizen / soldiers once again. People oppose a draft but mercenary forces are not a good deal either.

Congress needs to reappraise the use of contractors in combat zones, consider the role of a draft and the desirability of mandatory military service once again as a condition of U.S. citizenship, and also to consider developing a military owned draft based Service Corps to provide essential support for our troops.

Military benefits and appropriations needs to be completely rethought and it should be done now while we are doing incremental financing of the Iraqi War not later when these costs are locked into a formula.