This Is Why You Don't Outsource and Privatize the Military

More fun in our military libertarian paradise (italics mine):

Afghan private security forces with ties to the Taliban, criminal networks and Iranian intelligence have been hired to guard American military bases in Afghanistan, exposing United States soldiers to surprise attack and confounding the fight against insurgents, according to a Senate investigation.

The Pentagon's oversight of the Afghan guards is virtually nonexistent, allowing local security deals among American military commanders, Western contracting companies and Afghan warlords who are closely connected to the violent insurgency, according to the report by investigators on the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Can we say FUBAR? Why, yes, we can:

The United States military has almost no independent information on the Afghans guarding the bases, who are employees of Afghan groups hired as subcontractors by Western firms awarded security contracts by the Pentagon. At one large American airbase in western Afghanistan, military personnel did not even know the names of the leaders of the Afghan groups providing base security, the investigators found. So they used the nicknames that the contractor was using -- Mr. White and Mr. Pink from "Reservoir Dogs," the 1992 gangster movie by Quentin Tarantino. Mr. Pink was later determined to be a "known Taliban" figure, they reported.

Well, I would feel secure, being guarded by Mr. Pink. And it's fantastic foreign policy too:

Some Afghans hired by EOD Technology, which was awarded a United States Army contract to provide security at a training center for Afghan police officers in Adraskan, near Shindand, were also providing information to Iran, the report asserted.

Seriously, this is what happens when you are fighting an unpopular war and engaged in an unpopular occupation: you have to resort to mercenaries. Whether those mercenaries are U.S. citizens (e.g., Blackwater) or foreign, they do not have our interests at heart.

If we can't raise the needed forces--soldiers, not mercenaries--at home, then maybe we shouldn't be fighting.

Bring them home now.

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Been saying this for years. If you're hiring mercenaries to protect you, what happens to you when (not if) the other side makes them a better offer?

By Julie Stahlhut (not verified) on 10 Oct 2010 #permalink

What's the fucking point of hiring security if YOU HAVE NO DAMN CLUE WHO IT IS YOU ARE HIRING?

By Drivebyposter (not verified) on 10 Oct 2010 #permalink

For some weird reason I am now seeing an ad in Russian (I think) on this blog!

(FWIW Mike the Mad is clearly right, as usual. I guess one needs to go to a biologist now for the best politics.)

Been saying this for years. If you're hiring mercenaries to protect you, what happens to you when (not if) the other side makes them a better offer?

They don't even have to get a "better" offer if they can get paid by both sides. More like a double dip.

By natural cynic (not verified) on 10 Oct 2010 #permalink

Judging from some of the atrocities committed by our loyal mercenaries I think we may have hired Mr. Blond.

For some weird reason I am now seeing an ad in Russian (I think) on this blog!

(FWIW Mike the Mad is clearly right, as usual. I guess one needs to go to a biologist now for the best politics.)