Military Industrial Complexes ("outsourcing" -- i.e. contractors -- at the Abu Ghraib Prison)

Military Week ^ | May 4, 04 | Karen Kwiatkowski, Lt. Col. USAF (ret.)

[churchillbuff]

American soldiers today are quite familiar with the military industrial complex and outsourcing. They see inedible food, an extra burden of providing security, and shocking pay inequities. They see inscrutable accountability mysteries.

Some Iraqis held at Abu Ghraib Prison have met the modern American military industrial complex up close and personal. Contractors from CACI International and Titan Corporation, as well as members of our own military, are under investigation for "mistreating" prisoners.

CACI International and Titan Corporation represent numbers 63 and 35, respectively, of the Pentagon's top 100 contractors for 2002. These companies are small fry, as out-sourcing goes.

Rational people may debate whether America's occupation of Iraq is purely defensive, a Republic behaving imperially, or the blueprint for a new kind of empire. But underlying the debate is a fact – that by its very existence – undermines the Constitution, American traditions of justice, and the laws of armed conflict.

We have today over 15,000 military contractors in Iraq, doing not just the cooking and cleaning, but the fighting, the guarding, the strategizing, and even some of the dying. After the U.S. and the U.K. militaries, this third largest "force" outnumbers the entire remaining coalition of the paid for.

The military industrial complex lobbies Congress on a daily basis, costs the taxpayer billions each year, chips away at the credibility of the United States as a force for justice and good will, exists in a hazy legal wasteland unaccountable to domestic or international law, and serves to embarrass the country periodically with overcharges, technology leaks to other countries, and human rights abuses.

Outsourcing contracts for everything from toilet paper to bullets to guards and interrogators have become the Soylent Green of the military industrial complex, an "artificial nourishment whose actual ingredients are not known by the public." The top 100 CEOs and Vice Presidents cheerfully move from government circles into defense industries, and sometimes back again.

This third-generation spawn of Smedley Butler's racketeers go where we pay them to go and do what they are told. They can hardly complain later that they were forced into anything, or misled by faulty intelligence, or didn't know what they were getting into. You see, it's all in their contracts. This makes them worth far more to Washington than our all-volunteer force of American soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines.

[churchillbuff]

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[churchillbuff]

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[churchillbuff]

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[Belisaurius]

Karen Kwiatkowski, Lt. Col. USAF (ret.), noted Buchanonite whackjob and neocon-hater, shares her thoughts on the situation in Iraq. I can't believe this buffoonery wasn't posted at Lew Rockwell's place.

It's all a joooish neocon conspiracy, I tell you.

[satchmodog9]

Although I question the motive of the author, I can honestly say that there are many valid points here.

[ex-snook]

"Karen Kwiatkowski, Lt. Col. USAF (ret.), noted Buchanonite whackjob and neocon-hater, shares her thoughts on the situation in Iraq. I can't believe this buffoonery wasn't posted at Lew Rockwell's place. It's all a joooish neocon conspiracy, I tell you. "

And she is wrong because ???????.

[churchillbuff]

"Karen Kwiatkowski, Lt. Col. USAF (ret.), noted Buchanonite whackjob and neocon-hater, shares her thoughts on the situation in Iraq. I can't believe this buffoonery wasn't posted at Lew Rockwell's place. It's all a joooish neocon conspiracy, I tell you. " And she is wrong because ???????.

Hey, watch it. Belisaurius wants to confine his commentary to cheap shots and bigoted smears, but you're asking him to engage in adult dialogue and reasoned analysis. Most unfair of you.

[ex-snook]

"Hey, watch it. Belisaurius wants to confine his commentary to cheap shots and bigoted smears, but you're asking him to engage in adult dialogue and reasoned analysis. Most unfair of you. "

Seems like no one has refuted truths.

[Belisaurius]

from Lew Rockwell...Karen Kwiatkowski is one of the experts MoveOn.org used -- her comments late in the film came across beautifully ..
Those noted truthtellers at move-on.org. Right. Nice try, trolls.

[Belisaurius]

I also found her drivel proudly displayed at 'Veterans for Peace', a group founded to oppose the first Gulf War, and otherwise notable only for their obsession with depleted uranium exposure (funny how Navy FCs who have been working with the Phalanx for years exhibit no syptoms of this made-up malady), and for the following:

Veterans For Peace Vieques Service Badge Issued for individual participation in the movement to end the U.S. Navy's bombing and shelling of Vieques as well as the continuing struggle to cleanup the military toxic contamination left there.
Move-on.org and Veterans For Peace. Wow, and I'm the bigot.

[churchillbuff]

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[churchillbuff]

Seems like no one has refuted truths.

Seems like a lot of blind supporters of the adminstration's Iraq policy can't answer criticism, so they resort to name-calling.

[churchillbuff]

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[churchillbuff]

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[Howlin]

Kwiatkowski?

FGS, you're pathetic.

Don't ever ping me to this claptrap again.

[churchillbuff]

Kwiatkowski? FGS, you're pathetic.

She wore the nation's uniform honorably. Don't you "support the military"? She's one of them.

[churchillbuff]

Also, what about her substantive point - - - that apparently we've outsourced a lot of traditional military roles to private contractors whose accountability to the UCMJ is questionable, and who may even be beyond civil or criminal accountability? I'd like to see this allegation discussed intelligently, wouldn't you?

[Howlin]

She wore the nation's uniform honorably. Don't you "support the military"? She's one of them.

Don't try to turn it around on me.

I support honest people in the military, not opportunist freaks.

You vouched for her, now you're stuck with this whacko as your source.

[Barlowmaker]

Please remove me from your ping list. Thanks.