Finally Some AID

Another excellent move away from farming out our policy and defense to those whose C-in-C is the Almighty Dollar.
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Of course, what really needs to happen here is more Affirmative Action For Wingnuts, and in that capacity, I offer these mental pellets to those fecal pellets on the right:
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Joe! You're a communist!
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Bigger Government!
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Socialist plot!
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Or, as my favorite GOP terrorist, 2/3rds of a nut, exclaimed on your LOL blog last week!
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"We aren't violent, but we're not afraid of it!"

Joe Klein:

A much better path would be for dedicated foreign service officers, with real knowledge of the situation on the ground, to distribute the funds to local contractors and NGOs with specific missions within the larger U.S. strategy.

That's crazy, un-American, leftist ideology talking, not the pristine, Rumsfeldian, scientific management principles of Gov 2.0.
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If the past eight year have taught us anything, it's that, in the long run, outsourcing to the entrepreneurial genius of outfits like KBR and Blackwater will always save tax-payer dollars whilst serving US strategic interests.
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What would bureaucrats like "foreign service officers" know about efficient operations in the service of complex US foreign policy goals?
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What we need is more private contracting overseas, so that we can show the world how fundamentalist free market-based policies work in practice to benefit everyone everywhere, just like conservative principles say they should.
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Freedom is on the march, Joe Klein.

Speaking of contractors, some data:

"The number of military contractors in Afghanistan rose to almost 74,000 by June 30, far outnumbering the roughly 58,000 U.S. soldiers on the ground at that point."

"In Iraq, as of June 30 there were 119,706 military contractors, down 10% from three months earlier and smaller than the number of U.S. troops, which stood at approximately 132,000."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125089638739950599.html

Hey ffffffred, who do you think would have been a better alternative to Halliburton? The only other company equipped to do the job was from France. Is that who you would have given the contract to?

Did he really accuse Obama of "sturm und drang?" Has he got a defective word-a-day calendar?

What company would that Cliffy? I can't seem to get an answer.

Afghanistan is a classic exampleof the failure of Americans to understand history.
History shows that all empires fail eventually(they simply collapse under their own weight), but the empires that last the longest are the ones that give back to their colonial subjects. Hence the longevity of the Greek, Roman, Moorish and British empires. The American empire lasted almost exactly twelve years, from November 1989 until September 2001.

When the US taxpayer pulled out of Aghanistan in the late eighties, at the same time the Soviets did, the Afghans reverted to their default lifestyle, namely growing dope and killing people. While seeing Afghanistan as a successful proxy win in the Cold War, the US failed to follow through to secure the territory.

Until such time as the US is prepared to spend as much time and resources on winning the peace as on winning the war, then any military victory is meaningless.

Iraq is testament to that.

"What company would that Cliffy? I can't seem to get an answer."

Where were KBR during WWII, Korea and Vietnam? We fought on 3 different fronts, in Italy, Europe and Asia and we managed to supply our troops under worse conditions without funneling huge amount of money to mercenary organisations such as KBR and Black Water.

Funny how that is. Who else could have done it? How about our military? Or how about local companies? How about providing locals with a job, I'm sure they can do a better job and lift themselves up at the same time. That way maybe desperate Iraqis didn't have to take up arms against us for a hot meal.

It's funny how Halliburton was on the edge of corporate oblivion until a no-bid contract suddenly revived it.

That's just to much fun for me.