I FIGURED IT OUT - RE DRAFT

[whosinpower]

It came upon me in a blinding flash - why Bush is adament that there will be no draft.

Firstly - consider that Bush wants a small government - well a government that relaxes regulations, low taxes, and no social programs - or very few. He is for privatization. He would privatize social security, healthcare and the military. YES - you heard me - the military.

This is why there will be no draft. Private defense firms will fill the gap. You BET they are much more expensive than a domestic military - BUT that is the point. He would make sure that security trumps social programs. AND, we hear very very little in regards to mercenaries being killed in Iraq. This is more good news for Bush. People do not get so upset when a mercenary is killed as they were well paid to do a dangerous job.

here is a snip of an article that gave me the epiphany....

In the private sector, the US government has awarded lucrative contracts to security technology and mercenary contracting firms tied to the Abu Ghraib scandal by General Antonio Taguba's investigation.

CACI International, which provides interrogators to supplement the US Army's intelligence and counterintelligence operations in Iraq, revealed last week that it has obtained contracts valued at $266 million.

That announcement came less than a month after the US Army awarded a six-month "bridging contract" worth as much as $400 million to Titan Corp, the San Diego-based security firm also tied to the Abu Ghraib abuses. That contract will likely keep Titan's force of over 4,000 translators working in Iraq until September 2005.

Later last month, Titan landed a National Security Agency deal that will rope the publicly traded defense giant another $300 million. On October 1 Titan scored a five-year "indefinite-delivery, indefinit-quantity multiple-award" technical contract from the US Navy valued at over $1 billion. To continue the streak, on Thursday the Navy awarded Titan a separate five-year contract worth $109 million.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7108.htm

well du'ers....think I am crazy?????

[trotsky]

1. An intriguing possibility...

And certainly there would probably be enough people to "volunteer" for service in a private army - after all, the way job creation is going, your choice will be "fight or starve."

[politicat]

4. And the money is very, very good...

I've got a friend who is an oil well expert and has spent extended terms in the middle east. The pay is very high and for the security team that accompanies them, it's even better. (he's considered switching to security since he was Special Forces.)

Knowing that you might die, but might not, and can make $6000 after tax a month in a job that requires little in the way of skills (except for what they train you to do) would be a good inducement for a lot of people.

Pcat

[LisaLynne]

2. You know ...

you might have something there. Something to think about! I always had the idea in the back of my mind that the "small government" crowd would like to use state-run militia to keep everybody in line for their police state. However, I always wondered how they would continue to try to take over the world -- well, the parts of the world with oil. Maybe this is what they're thinking!

Oh, edited to add that I don't think any of that would work. I just think that's what they dream about.

[Goldmund]

3. I don't think so

Private defense contractors can make a difference in equipment, supplies, special forces, etc -- but not when sheer troop numbers are needed. If there's another war -- say, in Iran -- the US military will probably need another 3-4 hundred thousand troops to be able to do that. That can't come from private contractors -- although they will still play a big role.

[never cry wolf]

5. I thought I read private "security" was the 2nd largest member

Of the coalition of the willing that is. Somewhere along the lines of 30,000 private security personnel in Iraq, more that the brits.

[Cat Atomic]

6. Agreed. I think Bush is just flat lying.

So what if he takes a political hit for instating a Draft after promising not to? He'll be a lame duck anyway. Besides, he hasn't given two shits about public opinion up to this point, and that was *with* an election looming before him.

[whosinpower]

7. Well - consider this article

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/peacekpg/training/1029private.htm

snip - Peter W. Singer, a Brookings Institution military analyst, estimates there is one contractor for every 10 foreign soldiers in Iraq - 10 times the private involvement in the Gulf War. Worldwide, private military companies earn about $100 billion in yearly government contracts, Singer believes. Ninety private military companies are listed on the Web site for the Center for Public Integrity. In comparison, the U.S. defense budget is about $380 billion this year, excluding emergency spending, and is expected to rise to more than $400 billion. Some of the firms working in Iraq are huge, politically connected conglomerates like Halliburton - corporate parent of Kellogg, Brown & Root and formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. Others are little known, like Erinys, a security firm chocked with former South African special forces that will train 6,500 Iraqis to guard oil installations.

The world of military contracts is a murky one. In Iraq and Afghanistan, important buildings in the capitals bristle with gun-toting Americans in sunglasses. They favor khaki photographers' vests and a few military accoutrements, but lack the name tags and identifying patches of a soldier. Ask who they work for and one often hears "no comment" or "I can't tell you that." Contractors' deaths aren't counted among the tally of more than 350 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. No one is sure how many private workers have been killed, or, indeed, even how many are toiling in Iraq for the U.S. government. Estimates range from under 10,000 to more than 20,000 - which could make private contractors the largest U.S. coalition partner ahead of Britain's 11,000 troops.

[lukasahero]

8. Aren't they already privatizing it? eom

[DrWeird]

9. "Bush wants a smaller government."

Pull the other one. It's got bells on.

[donkeyotay]

10. I don't think you're crazy. I think that's a very good point

The privatized military is growing, theoretically because it was cheaper. Well, it may also be more politically expedient. The fact that the deficit is spiraling out of control has already been dismissed as not mattering since the repo's are doing it.