http://freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=13352Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Bernard Weiner, co-editor of The Crisis Papers website. Mr. Weiner's commentary appeared on that site on Tuesday, August 28, 2007. Mr. Weiner, Ph.D. in government and international relations, has taught at universities in California and Washington, and worked for two decades as a writer/editor for the San Francisco Chronicle. His commentary follows:
"Outsourcing" jobs overseas is only the tip of the iceberg. How about the CheneyBush administration "outsourcing" our military, our intelligence-gathering, our nation's soul?
Taking private enterprise way beyond what is reasonable, or desirable, or safe, the CheneyBush administration has turned over a huge raft of national-security functions to those not adequately trained, not accountable to the public or the law, not showing up on the political radar.
In short, CheneyBush have created what amounts to their own private legions - soldiers, intelligence analysts, security guards, construction experts, supply specialists, et al. - in effect, a "mercenary" force bought and paid for by the American taxpayer.
That's why there will probably be no draft: There is no guarantee of loyalty from those dragooned into service. Besides, many draftees have politically-connected constituencies. But when one's mercenary "volunteer" forces are totally beholden to the paymaster for their livelihood and under-the-table payoffs, they will dance with them that brung 'em.
These are no small numbers. It's estimated that in addition to the 160,000 regular troops in the field in Iraq, CheneyBush control anywhere from 60,000 to 100,000 private assets ("independent contractors"). Nobody's even sure under what "rules of engagement" these guys - many in security and reconstruction fields - operate, or whether they are accountable to anyone other than their corporate bosses' and the financial "bottom line."
History shows us the dangers involved when leaders have large extra-institutional forces at their command, such as the Praetorian Guards and Legions of ancient Roman Caesars, Hitler's Brownshirts, Saddam's Republican Guards, the private militias of political and religious leaders today in Iraq, Blackwater forces in control of New Orleans after Katrina, etc. By and large, these mercenaries swear allegiance to their employer, not to the rule of law, not to any constitution. The catastrophic damage done to democracy by the existence, and power, of these private forces can't be overstated.
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