Another Day-Another "Conktractor" Bilking Military/Taxpayers

[SeattleGriz]

I heard it was Barbara Boxers husbands group.

Just kidding about Babs, but she did get a ton of funding sent to her husband, and then when busted, she stepped out of her position.

[Rob Iola]

Corruption is independent of politics - look no further than Charlie Rangel...

What's sad is that the 1 decent thing that came out of Bush's Iraq war - a clear strategy for "victory" and ultimately a drawdown in forces - the so-called "Surge" - is being promoted by Obama's hand-picked commander for Afghanistan and yet is being ignored or worse by the White House and Congress...

Obama's got to either shitt or get off the pot on Afghanistan...

[Cap'n Cat]

Corruption is independent of politics - look no further than Charlie Rangel...

What's sad is that the 1 decent thing that came out of Bush's Iraq war - a clear strategy for "victory" and ultimately a drawdown in forces - the so-called "Surge" - is being promoted by Obama's hand-picked commander for Afghanistan and yet is being ignored or worse by the White House and Congress...

Obama's got to either shitt or get off the pot on Afghanistan...

Get off the pot and let the chips fall where they may. Let the rest of the world heve to deal with this policing shit for a while. Fvck, I'm tired of it.

[SeattleGriz]

Corruption is independent of politics - look no further than Charlie Rangel...

What's sad is that the 1 decent thing that came out of Bush's Iraq war - a clear strategy for "victory" and ultimately a drawdown in forces - the so-called "Surge" - is being promoted by Obama's hand-picked commander for Afghanistan and yet is being ignored or worse by the White House and Congress...

Obama's got to either shitt or get off the pot on Afghanistan...

Get off the pot and let the chips fall where they may. Let the rest of the world heve to deal with this policing shit for a while. Fvck, I'm tired of it.

[CID1990]

Using contractors isn't a Donk or Conk thing.

It is reality. Ever since the mid 1980s when we started replacing military mess cooks with contractors, traditional military duties have been slowly phased out and taken over by civilians.

Cooks, laundry, gate guards, OMSs, you name it. This is the result of military down-sizing. You free up as many troops for warfighting as you can. The military just does not have the Cold War money it used to, and we have replaced personnel-intensive bomber squadrons with drones; Mess specialists with civilian cooks. We replace people with technology and non-combat labor.

The real shift came in the 1990s during the various deployments in the former Yugoslavia. Kellogg-Brown and Root (Halliburton's support contractor) handled all of the support-logistics contracting in Kosovo. When OIF started up, they were the logical choice because they already had the infrastructure ready to go and in-theater.

Some contractors actually fill a niche in modern reconstruction and development projects that the military is not prepared or willing to undertake. The CIVPOL missions by the UN and by our own forces in Iraq and Afghanistan utilize civilian police to train and bolster police services in rebuilding countries like Kosovo, East Timor, Liberia, Haiti, Iraq and Afghanistan. I personally think that this is a good use of civilian contractors. I do not agree with doing PSD work and physical base security overseas with contractors. Unfortunately, we just don't have enough Soldiers and Marines to do it.

As for this particular case, I'm certain that the guard was re-patriated. I sent a couple guys home from Iraq myself. It happens. When I was in the military I caught guys sleeping on duty from time to time. The article implies that there is no contractor oversight. The guard was caught by a soldier who was tasked with doing just that- oversight.

[Cap'n Cat]

Using contractors isn't a Donk or Conk thing.

It is reality. Ever since the mid 1980s when we started replacing military mess cooks with contractors, traditional military duties have been slowly phased out and taken over by civilians.

Cooks, laundry, gate guards, OMSs, you name it. This is the result of military down-sizing. You free up as many troops for warfighting as you can. The military just does not have the Cold War money it used to, and we have replaced personnel-intensive bomber squadrons with drones; Mess specialists with civilian cooks. We replace people with technology and non-combat labor.

The real shift came in the 1990s during the various deployments in the former Yugoslavia. Kellogg-Brown and Root (Halliburton's support contractor) handled all of the support-logistics contracting in Kosovo. When OIF started up, they were the logical choice because they already had the infrastructure ready to go and in-theater.

Some contractors actually fill a niche in modern reconstruction and development projects that the military is not prepared or willing to undertake. The CIVPOL missions by the UN and by our own forces in Iraq and Afghanistan utilize civilian police to train and bolster police services in rebuilding countries like Kosovo, East Timor, Liberia, Haiti, Iraq and Afghanistan. I personally think that this is a good use of civilian contractors. I do not agree with doing PSD work and physical base security overseas with contractors. Unfortunately, we just don't have enough Soldiers and Marines to do it.

As for this particular case, I'm certain that the guard was re-patriated. I sent a couple guys home from Iraq myself. It happens. When I was in the military I caught guys sleeping on duty from time to time. The article implies that there is no contractor oversight. The guard was caught by a soldier who was tasked with doing just that- oversight.

Good post, 90.