Private Security Contractors in Afghanistan

At some point the federal government decided to replace U.S. soldiers with private contractors or mercenaries.

The people who did this figured that this way the government wouldn't have to pay medical bills, disability pensions, or retirement benefits to these people. It was brutal and unethical but it fit well with their belief in deregulation, outsourcing, downsizing, privatizing social security, etc. In other words the greedy and dishonest Republicans, with some very real help from many Democrats, especially the Blue Dog Democrats.

The security guards for the convoys of trucks bringing in supplies (like fuel) became private contractors instead of American soldiers. Mostly Afghan citizens. As we find now when the fuel convoys are burning, these private security contractors often didn't even report for duty, so nobody was guarding these trucks. Of course us taxpayers paid the bill whether anyone was on duty or not.

Now that this whole thing has literally blown up we find that many of these Afghan private security contractors were drug addicts or criminals, or even more shocking members of the Taliban.

So our young soldiers are being sent back to Afghanistan for tour, after tour, after tour of duty. They are dying and they are being permanently damaged. All in the name of fighting and destroying the Taliban. And behind their backs our own corrupt and incompetent government has been hiring the Taliban, and paying them good money, probably more than the soldiers make, with these bungling and ineffective private security guards many times being the exact same enemy we are trying to defeat.

This whole deregulation, privatizing, let-the-market-rule ideology is horribly sick and evil. It helps the super rich get even wealthier, but it is anti-Democracy and is destroying the viability of the American middle class.

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LINK TO ARTICLE: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704011904575538423731306064.html

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