Making Money From Their Blood: Cheney's Former War-Profiteering Company Is Suing Veterans It...

Cpl Matthew Wall SGM Mikel Dawson, there are several issues... most are not about the contractors but with the Military and their need to address it. You must understand the main reason behind the contractors and contracting.

There were three main reasons:
1. In many cases they can do it more efficiently and faster
2. Contractors free up service member to do the war fighter missions (killing the enemy)
3. Which is better hiring contractors or bringing back the draft?

There are of course other issues. They boost help the local economy by employing locals. It also helps stimulate our economy, they are not only paying American contractors to work overseas but there are the logistic, operations, and other jobs stateside. From a government point of view, they have less liability. Oh, a soldier got electrocuted in the shower, blame the contractor.

I see both sides of contracting (I was an MP in Iraq before the contractors and I was a contractor after I got out). First off contracting is nothing new. Call it by a different name but it is still the same thing, the Sutter's store during the Civil War were a precursor to AFFEES... KBR built camps in Vietnam... They are an asset. Like them or not.

The downside? Anywhere between 40 - 60% of a government contract is company profit. (war profiteering?) The contractors don't get VA benefits, pensions, some don't even have insurance benefits. They have no stability, as soon as the government cuts the contract they are done, often no severance or anything (in most cases). Sure contractors used to get paid really good but the government has cut contract awards and so the salaries are drastically cut. Contractors spend more time in theater than their service member counterpart but get no recognition for it. More contractors have been killed than service members, but they don't have to show those number or otherwise the casualty count would be closer to Vietnam numbers, and I am only speaking about American not the local national contractors...

So everything need to be looked at in proper perspective.

SSG Pete Fleming - I understand all the above post. I have to laugh at your #2. Engineers, cooks, truck drivers and such are not combat troops, they are CS, CSS troops so that fish don't float. So I bet you didn't go back as a contractor for military pay. The cost over runs and such are out of the world. The army isn't there for nation building, it's for killing the enemy. I'd rather bring back the draft, get more people involved in national service, but that's just me.
And who was it who told us to "Beware of the military industrial complex" He was a great president, warrior, leader and knew the dangers of contractors. Something we should have taken notice of.

SGM Mikel Dawson - #2 is valid I know what they are, but they are still essential to the mission and do go into the combat zone and if required will fight the enemy. Though there is a designation of combat and combat support at the end of the day, much like the Marines, every soldier is a warrior so not only does that fish float it fights its way up stream.

The rest of your comments are what I said, the high cost, and I don't think we should be nation building. The draft is a slippery slope, I support mandatory military or public service not everyone does, especially this generation.

SSG Pete Fleming - I know what #2 is and the essential part CS plays in theater. Maybe they should say "support to combat troops" You can't disagree that all the money spent on contractors would go further as boots on the ground, with service members doing their trained jobs. But we all know it's all about the money. Lest we not forget how many of our now rich people got rich before the U.S. entered WWII in support of Hitler and Germany. It will never change. War profits fill the pockets of those in the military industrial complex.

When I got out of the military I joined a government contractor. So am I also a war-profiteer who profited from their blood?

You always have control over how much money you make. You don't have to take the job if they don't pay you what you want. I took a job as a finance analyst. We had kids coming out of college making $65k a year. Of course we had our additives on top of that. People were making just as much bank as the companies were during Iraq and Afghanistan. Now the problem that companies are facing is that the govt is cutting back on those prices and not willing to pay $150 an hr for a senior level guy. They want $120.

I do understand what you are saying about prices going up on equipment and things. They it is a trickle up effect though. Who ever manufactures sets the price. That is part of Capitalism.

I've seen both sides of the house as well, It is less expensive to keep one contractor in country than it is to keep a service member.