AND OUR NEW BESTEST ENEMY IS!

(John W. Whitehead, Manta Media Inc. CNBC)

(Federal Procurement Data Service, Small Business Goeling Group)

(USA TODAY, Top 100 contractors report, Washington Technology, Frazer Chronicle)

Privatizing the War on Terror: America’s Military Contractors

“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes…..known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few…..No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” – James Madison:

“We must put an end to war…..or war will put an end to us,”- President John Fitzgerald Kennedy:

More than twelve years ago, according to the Bush administration, in Iraq we’d be “welcomed with flowers and be viewed as freedom makers”, the war would be over almost as quickly as it started, and the cost to the U.S. would be minimal, and in fact would be financed by Iraqi oil. These statements feel like decades old, but in fact aren’t, and although the U.S. is, militarily disengaged from the Iraqi mess…..the country still bleeds and 20, 30 and 50 people a day are getting killed.

We invaded Afghanistan shortly after the disastrous September 11, 2001 attack by terrorists in New York, Washington D.C. and a field in Pennsylvania. It marked the first time that the United States had been invaded since the war of 1812.

The war in Afghanistan still ebbs and flows in a seeming endless military conflict, that is the “long war” which actually was developed by U.S. military strategists. The theory was presented in many different ways, but its core argument was that to defeat the Taliban forces and the Iraqi resistance would take years, but success would not end the war because Islamist terrorism and its supports would be a constantly shifting threat, in the places and ways that they would operate. Therefore, since it was essential to defeat terrorism, the United States was engaging in a long war whose end was in a distant and far-off galaxy!

And here my friends is the kicker to this mentality…..sometimes explicit but usually implicit, in this argument was that other strategic issues faced by the United States should be set aside and that the long war should be the centerpiece of U.S. strategic policy until the threat of Islamist terrorism disappears or at least subsides. Even if the war in Afghanistan ended, the war in Islamist worlds would go on indefinitely.     

It’s the new phobia, replacing U.S. military troops with private contractors, in this age of no conscription or military draft…..generals and the Pentagon has to get their military numbers from somewhere. Obama made good on his promise to bring the troops home from Iraq, but contrary to the president assertion that “the tide of war is receding,” he replaced returning soldiers not only with military members, but with private contractors in Afghanistan…..at a far greater cost to the American taxpayer.

As the cost continues its steady raise through the years, like coming close to gazillion space bucks, the U.S. seems to be acquiring more enemies then reducing them. How can that be…..one might ask, since the president, the Pentagon and the generals keep talking about how were are “eliminating the bad guys”.

The long war mentality is alive and well in the Middle East, and the United States military industrial complex is so happy that they patriotically do a dance while waving their little American flags and straighten their American Flag lapel buttons.

WE DO NOT, I REPEAT, WE DO NOT NEED NEW ENEMIES

As we inch closer to the Fiscal Cliff, big ticket government spending areas like defense and entitlement programs are likely to be at the center of the coming debates. According to the pentagon, since 2001 contracts for services have increased by a staggering 137%, compared to a 1% increase for payrolls of active duty personnel over the same period.

However among the largest government contractors are some of the biggest companies in the United States. Some of these companies employ more than 100,000 workers and draw a majority of their revenue from government sources.

The top military contractors…..those companies who manufacture war machines, weapons, ammunition, materials, and miscellaneous other supplies or services reads like a who’s who of manufactures. Here is a short list, and their standing in the country, and their contract income:

Lockheed Martin, $18.97 billion

Boeing, (BA) $16.03 billion

General Dynamics, $8.79 billion

Raytheon, $5.72 billion

United Technologies, $2.41 billion

SAIC inc. $2.40 billion

L-3 Communications, $2.40 billion

McKesson Corp. $2.38 billion

BAE Systems, $2.15 billion

Oshkosh Corp. $430 million (*) pending contracts

 

Of course there are others, but the above list are the granddaddies of public trough feeders, there are an additional 70 outfits that draw at least a billion dollars in contracts, and 30 more who are just under the mark of a billion dollars.

WHAT CAN WE DO TO BREAK THE YOKE OF FINANCIAL BURDEN

Well first and foremost we need to employ representative officials that are going to do the bidding of the people as opposed to feathering their own nests. We will not survive in our current budgetary abyss unless we do an about face. We are deficit spending at a rate that the world has never seen, and we are threatening to cut entitlements to U.S. citizens who actually need help.

What would happen if we simply stopped…..quit our meddlesome practices and attitudes…..I realize that this might be called a defeatist attitude, but what the hell, we’re so far under water as a country, with our finances,  that a change in direction couldn’t hurt.

The FBI chief talked about Cyberattacks being our next big challenge…..well I’ve got a scoop for James Comey, the director…..are you out of your fricken mind, we do not need any new threats posed by new enemies, let’s work on whichever one’s we’re battling right now…..Oh and by the way…..YOUR FIRED, you jerk.

Comey continued that there aren’t any safe neighborhoods, everybody can be a threat, can be an enemy. Cyberisk…..(a new word) is a multilayered threat posed by thieves, hackers, and others who are able to travel the world via the Internet at the speed of light.

People come out of the woodwork when it comes time to identify new and enhanced enemies, people like Rand Beers, acting director of Homeland Security, and Matt Olsen National Counterterrorism Director both said that an attack like September 11, 2001 isn’t really much of a threat anymore.

Beers, (I like that name…..Beers,) I think I’ll de-cap one tonight; anyways Mr. Beers talked about overseas attacks as opposed to U.S. terroritory. There was talk about lone wolf types, or home grown violent extremists.

Wow we need hundreds of thousands of people dissecting information to identify lone wolf people…..sorry Mr. Beers, we part company here…..your fired. And Matt Olsen, for associating with both Comey and Beers, you, too, are fired…..it the workmen’s compensation line.

HAVE A NICE DAY!