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	BlackChampagne -- no longer new; improvement also in question.: Military Confusion Friday, October 21, 2005 Military Confusion Here's an article that got me thinking about an issue I've long been perplexed by. RALEIGH, N.C. - Scores of illegal immigrants working as cooks, laborers, janitors, even foreign-language instructors have been seized at military bases around the country in the past year, raising concerns in some quarters about security and troop safety. The immigrants did not work directly for the military but for private contractors, as part of a large-scale effort by the Pentagon to outsource many routine rear-echelon jobs and free up the troops to concentrate on waging war. ... This month, officials arrested three foreign language instructors at Fort Bragg. Over the summer, authorities apprehended 74 construction workers lacking documentation at Camp Lejeune, the Marines' major base on the Atlantic Ocean, and caught 49 illegal immigrants at North Carolina's Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. Illegals have also been caught at bases in Idaho and Florida. Some of them were deported; others were escorted off base and released. The total of about 150 does not include those working for military contractors off base. The off-base arrests have included hundreds of illegal immigrants hired to prepare field rations by a Texas company that admitted falsifying their employment records. Off-base arrests have also been made in North Carolina, Mississippi and California. In North Carolina, the military paid contractors $823 million this year and last to perform work at Fort Bragg, Camp Lejeune and Seymour Johnson. Such outsourcing is likely to increase, said defense analyst Loren Thompson of The Lexington Institute. The basic problem is that rather than having soldiers do the cooking, cleaning, and other non-combat work, the military is increasingly contracting with private companies like Halliburton. (And paying far, far more of our tax dollars to have them do it than it would cost to do it themselves. You didn't think Halliburton and all the others gave millions a year in "campaign contributions" for fun, did you?) They do these tasks poorly, at best (see this post about Heather Yarbrough, or read any of the daily articles about a complete lack of oversight and accountability for the billions we're pissing into reconstruction ratholes in Iraq and New Orleans.) but keep getting the contracts thanks to political connections, and as military recruiting continues to fall short of goals, and the National Guard continues to be grossly overextended in a foreign country, this practice will only increase. And the companies getting these contracts will continue to perform them to the absolutely minimum level, and as cheaply as possibly, which guarantees that they will continue to hire illegal immigrants for the work. Okay, that's all depressing and horrible, but what I've never understood about the military is how they get a blank check for every operation, but how like 0.0001% of that money actually goes to the soldiers or other human elements. Why is it okay that we have billion dollar aircraft and tanks and such being operated and repaired by men and women earning vastly sub-minimum wage? Low level soldiers, sailors, etc earn like $15,000 a year, while working every day, living in crappy barracks in the Iraqi desert, risking their lives, and doing absolutely critical tasks. Meanwhile, Halliburton gets multi-billion contracts, pays foreign nationals in Kuwait $3 a day to do the work they require, charges our armed forces $10 a gallon for gas, and watches their profits and stock price soar. How does that make sense on any level? How about we increase pay for all active duty military personnel by about 500%, hire a battalion of auditors and accountants to pour over the books, take about $50 billion back from what Halliburton and others have skimmed off the top, and greatly increase standards and requirements for future work? The budget would come out $40b ahead, the recruiting problems would vanish overnight, morale would improve, good people would stay in the service longer, and no one but the blood-sucking parasite defense contractors would be inconvenienced. It's a win win across the board! Now the chances of anything like this ever happening, with business interests basically merged with the Republican Party leadership, are far less than zero. I mean good lord, the Vice President was Halliburton's CEO 5 years ago, and he and others in the administration will go right back to those types of jobs when they leave public office (potential jail time aside). But it's fun to dream about easy ways to save billions of dollars while strenghtening the national defense, isn't it? Posted by: Flux # 4:35 PM Comments: Welcome to America. I honestly don't know where you've been and what you've been doing, but the notion of our government shitting away money is not new. It ain't unique to one party either. Greed is non-partisan. People just hate this administration so much that they see and dig up all the stuff that's normally brushed under the rug. That doesn't make it right, but it's not something that an administrative change will undo. Hell, you could follow everyone in government around with a gun to their head and they'd still find a way to shit our tax dollars down the toilet. I honestly don't think there IS a way to get rid of it...it seems to be the nature of government. We just need to hope that they don't get too crazy and legalize pedophelia or something. #: 8:01 AM posted by Anonymous Well if they were sensible they'd legalize drugs and stop wasting huge amounts of tax-money there on the 'war against drugs' that will never go anywhere and do anything. Won't happen for at least 50 years though, not until all the religious wackos who care more about 'morals' than common sense are out of office and out of the poling booths. #: 12:45 PM posted by Anonymous What about robot soldiers? Technology and logistical issues(cost/resource effectiveness) need to be developed sufficently before these would actually be feasible; however, they would save lives(at least on our side). I suppose the impersonal nature of a robot blindly killing people based on superior's orders is a scary thought though. Certainly not as cute as the starwars droids. #: 2:05 AM posted by Anonymous Post a Comment << Home Archives May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2012

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