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Originally Posted by AKAKBUCK
As for the "hang them all"/war profiteers/mercenary comments... I think its pretty difficult to throw around accusations like that in a country that has a professional military in the first place... Uncle Sam is still writing everyone's check... and... hey... they are easier to downsize.... and... every company that is there is a war profiteer... hang them too? What about companies that make antiterrorist products? War profiteers?
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The "hang them all" comment was admittedly heat of the moment hyperbole. The mercenary and war profiteer comments less so.
As for calling these contractors mercenaries, I won't make any apologies or modifications because that is what they are--private soldiers contracted by the government. While they might once have been US military personnel, that was in a previous life. Today, they're ultimate loyalty is to the the for-profit corporation to which they're employed.
While it's true that not every military contractor can be considered a war profiteer, that doesn't mean that war profiteers do not exist. There's just been too much smoke of unbid contracts and the outsourcing of traditional military/government operations to more costly/less efficient private companies in this war for there not to be ANY fire. Some of it, undoubtedly, was the result more of an ideological rigidity to privatize everything in sight than actual malfeasance. Some of it, however, is the result of pure crony-capitalism more worthy of a Central American banana republic than of the United States government in a time of war. Not every company is a war profiteer and not every motive or practice in awarding these contracts was criminal, but I do believe that in many instances the conduct of these companies and, most distressingly, the government officials in charge does rise to the level of criminal war profiteering and, as such, should be prosecuted one day.