What U.S. War Spending Tells Us
Turns out the “American Way” is still the way.
For many U.S. companies, business is good and capitalism is thriving. The catch is that this is true only for some American companies – specifically, those which do business primarily overseas.
As domestic mercantilism has faltered, revenue has soared for private defense contractors. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have meant big business for defense firms – complete with cozy contracts that carry lax limitations and no military oversight.
In other words, the Pentagon has endorsed veritable blank checks to contractors, according to a new exploratory report.
From the AP:
In its first report to Congress, the Wartime Contracting Commission presents a bleak assessment of how tens of billions of dollars have been spent since 2001. The 111-page report, obtained by The Associated Press, documents poor management, weak oversight, and a failure to learn from past mistakes as recurring themes in wartime contracting.
The full report will be released Wednesday.
Of the details that have already been released, the most interesting (to us) is the extent to which the U.S. relies on contractors. The Commission, a bipartisan group established by Congress, found “unprecedented” U.S. dependence on contractors.
How ironic that, at a time of sharp government growth, the military is relying primarily on the private sector.
Indeed, the full report may show – between the lines – that the wars are yielding more private jobs than any other industry.
That the government is doing more private sector hiring than the private sector itself points to the smudged differentiation between public and private. It’s getting harder and harder to tell where one ends and the other begins.
That, by the way, is the real significance of the report – not the scatter-shot stores of projects-in-duplicate and unnecessary reconstruction.
On that point the government ought to take note.
Yet again, though, the real takeaway here is that government cannot sustain itself … it needs the private sector, no matter how much it pretends otherwise.
Comments
By tricklovethekids on June 8th, 2009 at 10:36 am
This is essentially why wars are started, shady ass central banks are probably the culprits, the governments just have the military that needs private sector to produce goods for them.
By Gillon on June 8th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Looking at the title of this piece, I thought that we might be treated to some insight into how and why as a result of huge military expenditures, the private sector has been able to enrich itself so hugely at the government’s expense. I was hoping that there might be some comments on “the poor management, weak oversight, and failure to learn from past mistakes.” Perhaps even some decrying of no-bid contracts, outright fraud, tremendous waste–maybe even some criticism of how ex-VP Dick Cheney’s former firm of Haliburton and their like were able to make such a killing at the public trough. But instead all we get is your astonishment and fear that because of Iraq and Afghanistan, there is less “differentiation” between government and the private sector. Wow, all this time I was led to believe that terrorism was the major danger that we should be on our guard against. Now because of this insightful piece, I see a new danger lurking out there–the fact that our government and private business might actually be working too closely together to defend our nation and defeat our enemies–the much-to-be-feared “smudged differentiation.” But hey, not to worry, we learn in your last line that “gov’t. cannot sustain itself, it needs the private sector.” Wow. what an eye-opener, what a news flash, what richness of thought you provide us with.
By cyrusfx on June 8th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
You forgot to mention that its not normal to have this many military contractors, it never has been, and that the only reason we do so now is because Dick Cheney (ex CEO of Halliburton) was just our VP.
The idea to ramp up contractors in the military was 100% his, and not the general opinion of the goverment. You really need to do more research before you write.
By cyrusfx on June 8th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
ohh, I get it.
it took me about a minute of perusing other articles to realize you’re just another rightwing groupthinker, and this is your propoganda spout.
therefore, you most likely _do_ already know the reason why we’ve wasted enough money on military contractors to cloth & feed every human being on earth, you’d just rather not admit it to yourself and pretend it has something to do with “big government…”
have fun continuing to live in your version of reality, it will assure that your type are never elected to the federal government again.
By Mande Wilkes on June 8th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
“Cyrusfx” -
In fact, I didn’t forget to mention that it’s not normal to have this many contractors. I quoted the AP, which called the contractor presence “unprecedented.”
Reading is fundamental.
-Mande