Kirk sent along this tidbit from ABC News: I didn’t realize it, but there is an entire “second” American army in Iraq, the latest incidence of outsourcing. This one is a bit scary, though. Mercenaries are back, and the Pentagon’s got ’em Except they’re now called “consultants”:
What started with a trickle of special operations veterans freelancing as security consultants for the media and military contractors has grown into what is by some estimates the second-largest army in Iraq.
… Many of the private soldiers come from the ranks of America’s special operations command, which met a few weeks ago to stem losses of their expensive-to-train forces to this new, higher-paying army.
“You can probably make double or triple, or maybe even five times as much as you make in the military,” says Lawrence Korb, an assistant secretary of defense during the Reagan administration and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. “The thing that people have to realize is the U.S. government ends up paying twice for this, because they train these brave young men. Then, if they leave and go out and work for a private contractor, we have to hire them again. So, in effect, we’re paying double for it.”
The next step is clear: we can outsource all our military needs to India. Imagine the money we’d save!
