Iraq & Afghanistan: War and Corporate For Profit Democracy

The Worship for the Corporate Controlled Government, long a Conservative and Libertarian Ideology, i.e. small government in name and personal only! Where the Government agencies would still exist, gotta have someone to blame, already done when corporate contractors do their thing, in a very lightly if at all unregulated with little to no oversite corporate control, private mercenary armies, so those hired to represent can build bigger budgets for growth of the corporate bottom line profits, think no-bid war contractor contracts and all costs on the credit card, less would then be on that credit card for the masses would be billed directly then and not given tax cuts along with costly, wealth enhancing, policies!

Is The U.S. Military Too Reliant On Contractors?

In war zones, private contractors can outnumber U.S. troops, but who controls them? NPR's Rachel Martin speaks with Stanford's Joseph Felter and journalist Pratap Chatterjee about current safeguards.

October 26, 2014 - NOURI AL-MALIKI: (Through translator) We will never allow Iraqi citizens to be killed in cold blood by this company which doesn't care about the lives of Iraqis.

MARTIN: A month later, Blackwater CEO, Erik Prince, is taken to task on Capitol Hill. Here's Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman.

CONGRESSMAN HENRY WAXMAN: We're not getting our money's worth when we have so many complaints about innocent people being shot.

MARTIN: A couple weeks later, President George W. Bush says the incident will be investigated.

GEORGE W. BUSH: I will tell you, though, that a firm like Blackwater provides a valuable service. They protect people's lives.

MARTIN: But the company's reputation is crumbling.

snip

MARTIN: But there are still thousands of military contractors working for the U.S. government around the world - and questions about how they're held accountable. For more, I spoke with retired Army Colonel Joseph Felter, who teaches at Stanford University. And Pratap Chatterjee - he's the executive director of CorpWatch and the author of "Halliburton's Army." I started by asking them how dependent the U.S. military is today on contractors. Here's Pratap Chatterjee.

PRATAP CHATTERJEE: Since 9/11 we've had, on an average, anything between one and three contractors for every uniformed military in the various wars we've engaged in. So right now, in fact, at this very moment or at least a couple of months ago, there were 35,000 troops in Afghanistan and about 52,000 contractors. read more>>>

Right near the end of the discussion a comment is made showing what the subtle message really is in the agenda that started showing very clearly during the Bush administration and Conservative controlled Congresses:

FELTER: Well, Rachel, I think there's a disconnect between our current objectives and our - the strategy we're willing to take to achieve them. And I do anticipate increasing numbers of boots on the ground. You know, time will tell. But as far as using contractors, you know, we've got a couple options. Either we reduce the demand we place on our military or we increase the supply of uniformed military and government employees which, you know, means huge budget increases. So short of that, contractors are here to stay. And I think given that, we should start to integrate them into our command and control structures, integrate them into our preparations. And I think that's the way ahead.

They were quickly integrated, as Quick as the Country followed the beating drums in Abandoning the Missions and those sent to Accomplish after 9/11! Extremely quickly into Military Operations, Interrogation and Torture and into the Intelligence and more CIA operations, probably placing this private Merc Army behind the same wall the CIA maintains, secretive budgets and funding as well as operations 'In Our Name!'!!

* * * The British Iraq War Inquiry * * * Released will carry private communications between GWBush and TBlair, like this already released: TB said there was a danger the Tories would see this as their chance to get rid of him … Bush said they would make it clear to the Tories that if they moved to get rid of TB "we will get rid of them".

* * * Iraq War Promoted Terrorism Rather Than Reducing It * * *

24 April 2014 - Britain’s involvement in the Iraq War promoted terrorism rather than reducing it and was a “strategic failure”, according to a major new report which estimated the cost of all UK conflicts since the end of the Cold War.
The Royal United Services Institute said the UK could face a bill of nearly £65bn, once the cost of long-term care for injured veterans was factored in, with most of the money was spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The study, called Wars in Peace, said both conflicts were largely “strategic failures” for the UK, The Guardian reported."

Facts: Matthew Hoh {former Marine and foreign service officer in Afghanistan}: "We spend a trillion dollars a year on national security in this country."
"And when you add up to the Department of Defense, Department of State, CIA, Veterans Affairs, interest on debt, the number that strikes me the most about how much we're committed financially to these wars and to our current policies is we have spent $250 billion already just on interest payments on the debt we've incurred for the Iraq and Afghan wars." 26 September 2014

Bob Herbert "Losing Our Way" : "And then the staggering costs of these wars, which are borne by the taxpayers. I mean, one of the things that was insane was that, as we're at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush administration cut taxes. This has never been done in American history. The idea of cutting taxes while you're going to war is just crazy. I mean, it's madness." Bill 'Moyers and Company': Restoring an America That Has Lost its Way 10 Oct. 2014