U.S. Contractor Use in Iraq Expected To Rise (WTF?)

[unhappycamper]

U.S. Contractor Use in Iraq Expected To Rise
By WILLIAM MATTHEWS
Published: 12 Jul 2010 15:55

As the U.S. military pulls troops and equipment out of Iraq, the State Department will have to rely increasingly on contractors to perform such services as flying rescue helicopters and disarming roadside bombs, a congressional commission warned.

That is not an ideal solution but none other seems available, members of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan said during a July 12 hearing.

While the Defense Department works to reduce its dependence on contractors, the State Department will have to greatly increase its use of hired help.

"Boy, that really troubles me," said Dov Zakheim, a commission member and former Pentagon budget chief. "You're going to be getting contractors not only doing what they're doing today, but doing things that are inherently governmental."

In a scenario spelled out by commission Co-chairman Michael Thibault, if State Department employees working as trainers for the Iraqi police come under fire from Iraqi insurgents, the injured might well have to be rescued by contractors because U.S. military forces are pulling out of the country.


:wtf:

[Vinca]

1. It seems like a shell game. We're leaving Iraq, except we're not.

[Lasher]

2. Why are State Department employees working as trainers?

I thought the 50,000 'non-comabt' soldiers were going to do things like that. And now they need to hire more 'non-mercenary' State Department employees. Not an ideal solution, they say, but none other seems available? How about getting the fuck out of Iraq, for real?

[RKP5637]

3. Then they can just outsource their wars to other countries. Oh, that's OK, US citizens

won't mind. We'll just pay for it all while our infrastructure, job market and country goes to hell. If this does happen it's ridiculous. Substitute "B" for "A" and just keep it going. This place IS crazy IMO.

Exactly! :wtf: :wtf: :wtf:

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. That game will end as our money runs dry..

[KeyWester]

5. Can't really tell what to think.

The headline is misleading. The article says the defense dept. is reducing it's dependence on contractors, and the State dept is using more.

Is it a net gain ? or loss ?

Certainly it is only temporary.

[unhappycamper]

7. "Certainly it is only temporary."

Really? How long do you think we should keep them there?

Guess who's going to pay for this: Teachers, Firemen, Policemen, education, national infrastructure, Social Security, Medicare, homeless programs, and aid to cities and towns are just a few of the things the United States will do to continue this occupation.

http://costofwar.com/

[DCBob]

6. The Iraq govt should be paying the bills for these contractors..

if they are needed so badly.

[Hannah Bell]

8. everything will be privatized. people will continue to be taxed & FORCED TO GIVE MONEY TO PRIVATE

CORPORATIONS WHICH THEY HAVE NO SAY IN CHOOSING, no knowledge of, no power over, no democratic control of or ability to discipline through the political process.

It's kind of like taxation without representation.

revolutionary.

[Statistical]

9. Less troops more "non troops".

See troop reductions.

Double Plus Good.

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. Oh, this Dov guy? One of the Bush inner circle, Wrote PNAC.

And still well planted in the shadow government, I see.

Heavily involved in a number of right wing organizations, think tanks, jobs.

From Wiki:
"During the 2000 U.S. Presidential election campaign, Zakheim served as a foreign policy advisor to George W. Bush as
part of a group led by Condoleezza Rice that called itself The Vulcans.

From 1987-2001, Zakheim was CEO of SPC International, a subsidiary of System Planning Corporation, a high-technology analytical firm. During that period he served as a consultant to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and sat on a number of major DoD panels, including its Task Force on Defense Reform (1997) and the DoD's first Board of Visitors of Overseas Regional Centers (1998-2001).

In 2000 Dov Zakheim also co-authored "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century"


Zakheim is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations ,

the International Institute for Strategic Studies ,

and the United States Naval Institute, and a member of the editorial board of the journal The National Interest.

He was an Adjunct Scholar of the Heritage Foundation,

a Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies ,

and published over 200 articles and monographs on defense issues.
( as part of his PNAC role)

He was then appointed to be Undersecretary of Defense and Comptroller from 2001 to 2004 under the George W. Bush administration, and served in this capacity until April 2004.
During his term as Comptroller, he was tasked to help track down the Pentagon's 2.6 trillion dollars ($2,600,000,000,000) worth of unaccounted transactions <2>. He initiated a number of processes that led to the reduction of that sum by two-thirds by the time of his departure. It has now been reduced by more than 90 per cent.
( I truly do not believe that. I do believe that he helped Rumsfield hide the money, tho. Just a feeling.)

He is currently a Vice President of Booz Allen Hamilton.
( Notice how often Booz Allen Hamilton appears in Right Wing projects)

So essentially his job on the Commission is to keep those lucrative contracts flowing in Iraq and Afghanistan.


double :wtf: :wtf:

[mdmc]

11. mission accomplished

[blindpig]

12. Define 'withdrawal'.....

another word rendered useless.

[frylock]

13. but we're getting out of iraq, right?

i saw that just yesterday on obama's super-awesome list of accomplishments.