Jul 12 2008
Independent Contractors: business as usual
An American girl displays a souvenir brought back from Iraq by her father, an independent contractor.
Much has been written about the widespread use of private contractors in Iraq. Many jobs which used to be performed by the military are now farmed out to private contractors and private contractors in Iraq now greatly outnumber the number of military personnel. The issues are many: financial and legal accountability are the issues most often sighted by critics. Stories of corruption, cronyism, over-billing, substandard equipment and service abound.
What concerns me is that the practice of contracting out the process of warfare makes war, business as usual. Think about what that means to the average worker: making war is ‘just a job’ to the thousands of people who work for Haliburton, AT&T, Blackwater, not to mention Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, & Burger King and Kraft Foods Inc. That sounds an awful lot like the kind of logic which allowed millions of Nazis to work in death camps, and support the government that ran them. For most, it was just a job that they needed to take care of their families. The idea is so abhorrent, I am sure that whether or not one supports the war is based in large part upon who (what institution) signs one’s paycheck every month. If Uncle Sam signs your check, then you must be a supporter of the war. There is no other ethical position to take on the matter. To be paid by the Uncle Sam and take negative view of the war is a recipe for self destruction. The average human heart might go mad at the thought of it.
Here is a collection of articles on the subject. It is by no means an impartial collection.
