The Ultimate GOP Plan Is To Run Military Like A Business. Here Is What They Have In Mind.

[TheMastersNemesis]

If you listen really carefully to the GOP and analyze what Rumsfeld & Company did and had in mind what I will say is here is what GOP still has in mind if you are military.

1. Privatize (profitize) ALL military operations except for combat arms.
2. Raise the retirement age for all military to 59 1/2 regardless of service.
3. Make all military jobs "work at will" except combat arms.
4. Change the retirement system to a 401K you are eligible for at 59 1/2
5. Put all military medical under a private system
6. Let private companies and organizations like "Sisters of the Poor" run the system.
7. Change retiree medical to private vouchers.
8. Let private insurance rate service disabilities.
9. Allow benefit and lifetime limits.
10. Give vouchers for education based on time of service.

If you believe I am too far afield just think about the logical outcome what they are saying as well as implying. Look at the big picture of what "running someone like a business" really means. Even for the military. I realize what I have said looks extreme but my survey of most of their rhetoric and philosophical stance takes me to where I am.

ALSO remember a lot of the military has been privatized with $100,000 workers doing KP duty, fixing helicopters, driving trucks, etc.

[Trust Buster]

1. Vietnam was run like a business. That was a disaster.

[TheMastersNemesis]

3. There Is No Particular Source For This OP. It Is Based On "Trial Balloons" What Is Already Going ON

I am a Vietnam vet who has been following the GOP's policies for years. When you survey a lot of their rhetoric and watch for bits of policy statement that come up over time things begin to add up. There are a lot of things under the radar and in the background that come up. Plus a lot of things have happened since Rumsfeld & company.

So far here is what has happened that most of the public is NOT fully aware of. When Rumsfeld talked about having "just" trigger pullers he was using code for turning most or all of 'military occupational specialties" except for combat arms in to privatized jobs so to speak. Since Bush a good many jobs done by rank and file military are now done by "contractors" making more money than rank and file soldiers.

During the Iraq war military convoys were loaded with civilian contractor truck drivers and motor pools were civilian contractors. Equipment repair, logistics, administration etc have largely become contractor civilian employees. Armed troops were only their for protection and combat operations.

Bush & company even quite supported using civilian contractors for medical care even in combat with MASH units contracted but it was never implemented.

The Koch brothers fund "Concerned Veterans For America" a phony vets group whose main goal is to privatize the VA with Tricare, military health care, et al to follow. Even now a GOPPERS on the VA reform commission met on its own and added private care for military retirees, disabled vets et al under VA reform.

Right now 40,000 open positions at VA are unfilled and unfunded. The GOP is sabotaging VA so it can be privatized. Even Bush pushed privatization and screwed up Walter Reed so he could move forward. Vets were so mistreated at Walter Reed under Bush he had to back off.

The ultimate GOP philosophy on medical care including civilian, VA and military is that EVERYONE in the country must fall under a 'vouchered" health care system with limited lifetime benefits. Look at the rhetoric, trial balloons statements, philosophy et al that leaks out or bleeds out. When you put everything together including all the clue, code and what has already happened what I have written comes into focus. The chief mantra of the GOP is that EVERYTHING INCLUDING VETS CARE MUST BE RUN LIKE A CORPORATION.

I hope I am wrong with my conclusions but we are being moved into these directions. The GOP secretly and quietly moves things and deceives people constantly. They lie to and mislead veterans with their patriotic blather.

They do not care about vets or anyone else. Once you are no longer USEFUL then its screw you.

[1939]

5. The Army has a mandated end strength

That is set by Congress. To maximize "boots on the ground" the Army has had to resort to contracting out what it needs in the way of support. To provide support for a given force size requires so many trucks to haul cargo. A truck company has 60 trucks. Divide the number of trucks by sixty will give you the number of truck companies you need. If you contract it out, those can be infantry rifle companies in your force.

You mention KP. When they did away with the draft and needed an all volunteer army, they did some research to discover things that made people not want to enlist or re-enlist. Two of the main things were KP and landscaping. The Army then began to contract out KP, lawn mowing, and tree cutting.