CDZ Should we hire out our military operations to private companies?

[sartre play]

NO.

 

[Toronado3800]

An interesting article from John Stossel on private military contractors and using them to fight our wars....

A Private Military

The military uses contractors to provide security, deliver mail, rescue soldiers and more. Private contractors often do jobs well, for much less than the government would spend.

"We did a helicopter resupply mission," Prince told me. "We showed up with two helicopters and eight people -- the Navy was doing it with 35 people."

I asked, "Why would the Navy use 35 people?"

Prince answered, "The admiral that says, 'I need 35 people to do that mission,' didn't pay for them. When you get a free good, you use a lot more of it."

Prince also claims the military is slow to adjust. In Afghanistan, it's "using equipment designed to fight the Soviet Union, (not ideal) for finding enemies living in caves or operating from a pickup truck."

I suggested that the government eventually adjusts.

"No, they do not," answered Prince. "In 16 years of warfare, the army never adjusted how they do deployments -- never made them smaller and more nimble. You could actually do all the counter-insurgency missions over Afghanistan with propeller-driven aircraft."

------

n 2010, Prince sold his security firm and moved on to other projects.

He persuaded the United Arab Emirates to fund a private anti-pirate force in Somalia. The U.N. called that a "brazen violation" of its arms embargo, but Prince went ahead anyway.

His mercenaries attacked pirates whenever they came near shore. His private army, plus merchant ships finally arming themselves, largely ended piracy in that part of the world. In 2010, Somali pirates took more than a thousand hostages. In 2014, they captured none.


For something like this....at least you could never say the men and women went against their will.......no draft, completely volunteer, and the pay would be a lot better....

Interesting.

My vote is for no.

We need to keep our military responding directly to our elected officials. The needs of Fiat Chrysler or whoever and those of our government do not always align.

Not to mention the idea of "our" mercenaries being hired out by other people.

In the case you mentioned with the Navy sending more people than needed there are a couple things to be taken into account.

- Those folks in the Navy are getting paid anyways. If you want a smaller military that is another debate. I'm content with our spending levels.

- The admiral sending an overwhelming force is generally a great way to make sure something gets done.

If the military is wasting money, hold them accountable by all means but I dunno about the army of Fiat Corp.

 

[sartre play]

NO. did we learn nothing with the Black water, & Halburton mess

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Ten thousand years of recorded history point to the dangers of mercenary armies.
Every single society that made use of mercenary armies and elevated their position over and above a military that answers to the civilian sector wound up finding themselves at the mercy of said mercenary armies.

Loyalty service and love of country go out the window, and so do things like democracy, although in today's America, it doesn't look like democracy counts for much anyway. We're a handful of states away from a new constitutional convention, one at which I suspect democracy will be replaced with theocracy.

So I suspect those in favor of a full mercenary army will get their way. I just hope I am either no longer living here or no longer alive when that day comes.

 

[Natural Citizen]

No.

However - US Military Contractors Return In Droves to Iraq

 

[pismoe]

yep , NO to mercenary army or police though some say that we are pretty close or already there Strangler .

 

[jasonnfree]

No. Swords for hire are always for sale. Loyalty is expensive.

So what happened to the saying "ask what you can do for your country"?

It's from a JFK speech. And that is all.

Now I know which evil liberal bully invented it. Thanks. People must have been packs of morons in the time of jfk and now they are worse.

He wasn't evil. He wasn't there long enough to do a whole lot. It is rhetoric that every president uses at some point to rally support from the people in some way,shape or form. I doubt people were any more moronic than they are now.

The speech was inspirational to me at the time although there were plenty of people that didn't like JFK right from the beginning. We may not have been involved in so many wars had he not been assassinated.

 

[anotherlife]

Ten thousand years of recorded history point to the dangers of mercenary armies.
Every single society that made use of mercenary armies and elevated their position over and above a military that answers to the civilian sector wound up finding themselves at the mercy of said mercenary armies.

Loyalty service and love of country go out the window, and so do things like democracy, although in today's America, it doesn't look like democracy counts for much anyway. We're a handful of states away from a new constitutional convention, one at which I suspect democracy will be replaced with theocracy.

So I suspect those in favor of a full mercenary army will get their way. I just hope I am either no longer living here or no longer alive when that day comes.

It is better if a mercenary army fight the wars of a nation's leading banking syndicate. That way, more domestic citizens can be hired to spi on their neighbors at home.

 

[Disir]

So what happened to the saying "ask what you can do for your country"?

It's from a JFK speech. And that is all.

Now I know which evil liberal bully invented it. Thanks. People must have been packs of morons in the time of jfk and now they are worse.

He wasn't evil. He wasn't there long enough to do a whole lot. It is rhetoric that every president uses at some point to rally support from the people in some way,shape or form. I doubt people were any more moronic than they are now.

The speech was inspirational to me at the time although there were plenty of people that didn't like JFK right from the beginning. We may not have been involved in so many wars had he not been assassinated.

Maybe. Maybe not. Cold War Warriors were the going thing at the time. He would have been surrounded by the same people with the same thinking.