Mon
Oct 1 2007
11:31 am
Outsourcing The Military
By: Brian A.

I thought one of the reasons government outsources is to save money.

From the Washington Post:

According to data provided to the House panel, the average per-day pay to personnel Blackwater hired was $600. According to the schedule of rates, supplies and services attached to the contract, Blackwater charged Regency $1,075 a day for senior managers, $945 a day for middle managers and $815 a day for operators.
. . .
An unmarried sergeant given Iraq pay and relief from U.S. taxes makes about $83 to $85 a day, given time in service. A married sergeant with children makes about double that, $170 a day.

Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Baghdad overseeing more than 160,000 U.S. troops, makes roughly $180,000 a year, or about $493 a day. That comes out to less than half the fee charged by Blackwater for its senior manager of a 34-man security team.

Presumably, the military pay figures do not include benefits, so this isn't an exact comparison of the cost of compensation. But the disparity is so large that that I don't imagine we're saving tax dollars by hiring out security.

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bizgrrl's picture

Could it be they just don't

Submitted by bizgrrl on Mon, 2007/10/01 - 11:47am.

Could it be they just don't want a draft? Or, is it buying them more votes somehow? Or, they're just dumber than dirt?

Virgil Proudfoot's picture

Saving money isn't the goal

Submitted by Virgil Proudfoot on Mon, 2007/10/01 - 1:00pm.

Hiring mercenaries like the Blackwater goons has nothing to do with saving money. It has everything to do with (1) rewarding campaign contributors (like Blackwater) with taxpayer money and (2) avoiding congressional oversight since the private hires report to no one but their corporate bosses.

The Bushies couldn't care less about saving money. The more they squander on wacky military adventures, the less remains for "wasteful" social programs like SCHIP.

rikki's picture

missing the moral

Submitted by rikki on Mon, 2007/10/01 - 1:45pm.

Yes, but what is the value of having a legal buffer between, say, the Secretary of Defense and war crimes charges or the Attorney General and an international human rights trial? Surely you can't be claiming there is no value to having a legal smoke screen behind which to slake perverted torture fantasies and holy vendettas.

Carole Borges's picture

Bush's mercenaries were given immunity

Submitted by Carole Borges on Tue, 2007/10/02 - 7:55am.

The Iraqi government wants to revoke it now that the Blackwater thugs are sometimes as dangerous to them as Al Queda, but what chance have they got?

Regular troops have to work according to Rules of Engagement and silly things like the Geneva Convention. Blackwater troops have carte blanch to do whatever they are ordered to do. They are not trained soldiers, but they are doing soldierly jobs.

Governments who hire mercenaries always lose the wars they fight,

Reason? No passion, only greed or a lust for life-and-death action.

Blackwater should be thrown out of Iraq immediately. They've terrifed, injured and killed too many innocent people and the Iraqi people fear them.

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