"
The bottom line is chilling: private companies – with scary macho names like Blackwater USA and Triple Canopy –
are killing people in a military role in Iraq with massive U.S. financing but without the accountability that accompanies being part of the U.S. military. It was one thing in the Nineties for the government to begin outsourcing non-combat military tasks; it is something quite different to outsource the combat mission.
Mercenaries raise
other troublesome issues. They better enable a government to conduct a war that lacks popular support. As documented in the Times article, the high pay scale for mercenaries' pay in Iraq has bred intense resentment within the low-paid military, and in fact the private security companies often lure away top military talent. In short, the Bush Administration has spawned an industry that undermines military recruitment and morale.
Finally, unfortunately, in the future,
there is every reason to fear that these flourishing and aggressive new private “$ecurity companie$” will peddle their services to other governments engaged in armed conflicts elsewhere in the world."
