August 14, 2007
by Cliff Carson
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Since the arrival of the Bush Administration an evil has crept upon us and we hardly noticed. But it's here now and we are going to have to deal with it. It's the new Big Business - the Mercenary Army, or if you prefer the Corporate Army for hire.
There is an incestuous relationship between the Bush Administration and these Corporate Armies (Halliburton, Blackwater, KBR, and DynaCorp, come immediately to mind among the thousand or so now ongoing), and they have become one of the strongest forces in the world. This is Big Business beholden to their Company bottom line- not the interests of the United States. They are able to act in secret outside the law of the land, and with the Bush Administration bent on ignoring Constitutional law, the danger to American freedoms is serious. And, these Corporate Armies now have their sights set on deploying troops and equipment to act as a military police force to operate within the United States. They were present in New Orleans after Katrina, and are expanding rapidly from North Carolina to California.
In New Orleans, the mercenaries were paid $350 per day. Blackwater charged homeland Security $900 per day for each mercenary. So Blackwater's profit was $550 per day per mercenary. Of course, you and I paid for that profit, because we are the taxpayers forced to feed the Corporation profits.
There are over 100,000 private contract personnel in Iraq today and most of them are replacing what in the past has been tasks handled by Army personnel. So what you ask is wrong with hiring non-military men and women to help the soldiers? You might want to consider the following:
- When Regular Army soldiers are occupying a foreign country, for example Iraq, the incentive for the United States Military is to get the soldiers back home as soon as possible. But for a Corporate Army, just the opposite is true. The incentive is to stay as long as possible because that's how the profits are made. It is estimated that about 25,000 to 40,000 of these Mercenaries are acting in a total military capacity, making war on the Iraqis. Congress has estimated that about 40% of the expenditures in Iraq (Now over a Trillion dollars) has gone to these Corporations who profit from this war. A mercenary warrior in Iraq draws up to $200,000 per year and if the profit margin in Iraq is the same as in New Orleans, then those Corporations are charging you and me as forced taxpayers, to pay about $522,000 per year for each mercenary. Wouldn't our soldiers love to make half that much money while they are risking their lives in Iraq?
- Another problem is that there is no oversight of their actions. I watched on C-Span a group of Generals, testifying at a Congressional hearing, state that they didn't have a clue even who hired the Corporate Armies. The Generals stated they didn't know of or have any control of their military activities. The mercenaries operate outside the conventions of warfare and they receive their orders from the Corporation officer Corps.
The number of American casualties in Iraq does not include the number of mercenaries who are killed and injured. Equally shocking is that any atrocities committed by these mercenaries is also unreported. Mercenaries were present at Abu Gahrib acting as interrogators during some of the torture that went on there. Mercenaries are heavily involved with the renditions being practiced by black box operators around the world. And there are currently soldiers of the Corporate Armies spread around the world as you read this.
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Blackwater has their own Helicopter gunships, armor, weapons, etc. The Blackwater war equipment was not developed by them, so it cost you and me. They have the largest military facility in the United States, excluding a few Regular Army bases, at their location in North Carolina. With their war profits, they are currently developing an armed drone robot airplane to deploy around the world. It will be flown by a joystick in a facility in the United States. The range of all the weapons it can carry is not published, but Hellfire missiles will surely be one. Our regular Army already has Predator drones in action, but the good thing about this pilot-less attack plane is that it is controlled by regular Army soldiers who are on duty for the protection of American freedoms. Corporate armies however will have a different allegiance.
War has become a profitable business for these Companies. And, as said earlier they have their sights on becoming the dominant force policing American citizens. The rise of this war monger culture was greatly encouraged by the current administration. Possibly this is why Democrats, now the majority in Washington, don't want to dismantle the business as is. There is profit and power to be realized. You will be sent the bill. Some future citizen of the United Corporations of America may wonder "How did this happen".
But because Big Brother is watching (for citizen security of course), he will know it is not safe to question.
We must recognize that the importance of the 2008 election cannot be underestimated. The groundwork for potential loss of our freedoms has been laid. Our Government is out of control. We have to use our vote wisely while we still have it. We must not give away our rights because when we do, we lose our freedom.
"As long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think, free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost"
--Marcel Proust
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Cliff Carson [send him email] is a freelance writer and Populist Party contributor.
