"Mike Kanze" wrote in message

The funny thing about military outsourcing is it is the only case I know
of
where the outsourcing costs more than the in-house employees. However,
having the contractors do the beating and killing of prisoners does give
the
US cover.

The pejorative note of this comment aside, we as a nation have never fully
debated the question of the role - if any - that "contractors" should
play.

The U.S. military has been using contractors since the time of Geo.
Washington. IIRC, his commissariat was all contractors (just not Bechtel).
During the Civil War wagoneers and teamsters were all civilian contractors.
Most of the railroads were civilian run (although the Army did have railroad
battalions of gandy dancers, as well as run full trains). During the Indian
Wars you could add civilian scouts to the wagonmen and teamsters. The
Remount Sevice was peopled mostly by civilians. This seems to change after
the very spotty performance by the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War
so that by the time of WWII you had the Army Air Force owning aircraft
manufacturing plants.

I think the Navy has also made extensive use of contractors at Navy Yards
over history, again with a much larger use of uniformed servicement to
provide support services during WWII. And, to keep this at least somewhat
NavAir oriented, the Navy did run an aircraft factory in Philedelphia for a
long time (and may have run others).

So the role of the contractor has grown and diminished over the years,
depending on circumstances.

One danger that I see is of our slipping into a "Légion Étrangère"
mentality
(That's "Foreign Legion," to all you non-Francophones out there.). The
temptation for reckless adventurism increases when mercenaries -
especially
non-US nationals - get paid to absorb the body counts, absolving
politicians
of having to answer to the nation for those killed in the line of duty.

I think this is a rather broad statement and not supported by the facts.

In short, do we really want to become like the French?

Probably not. But that presumes that we are in any way, shape, or form
headed in that direction. I don't see that happening.

Bill Kambic

Mangalarga Marchador: Uma raça, uma paixão