The folly of Trump's palace guard

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(CNN)Reports are swirling over President-elect Donald Trump's apparent decision to bring a private security detail with him to the White House. Given America's checkered experience with private military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, Trump's anti-government rhetoric, and his apparent comfort with commingling state and commercial power, the last thing we need is a Blackwater on the Potomac.

Though the analogy to Blackwater is hardly perfect, we do have a recent and sordid history of private security contractors advancing sensitive government responsibilities. The number of contractors deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan often rivaled the number of uniformed military personnel. Many served admirably, and quite a few paid the ultimate price for their service. Still, trouble abounded. Often, the contractors weren't as well trained; they weren't as sensitive to the communities they were policing; and they weren't as scrupulous when it came to the laws, practices, and customs of civilized military engagement. It is therefore not surprising that allegations of criminal and civil misconduct attached to many of the biggest contractors and that the US-backed governments in Kabul and Baghdad regularly pleaded with the State Department to rein these contractors in.

Trump's palace guard is a bad idea for a variety of cultural, operational and legal reasons.

Culturally speaking, a private security force further broadcasts Trump's mistrust of the government he's been elected to lead. The US Secret Service remains the envy of governments around the world. Headline-grabbing scandals aside, its personnel are the best of the best, and the office has a longstanding reputation for professional excellence. Yet, suddenly, they're not good enough?

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/30/opinions/trump-palace-guards-michaels/index.html