Rent-A-Cops will guard military bases here at home

According to the Daily Mislead:

One of George Bush Jr.'s campaign promises was to "rebuild the military power of the United States," which Dick Cheney, his vice-presidential candidate, claimed had lapsed because of "multiplying missions and unclear goals." However, Bush's multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan have overtaxed the military even more and now have led to hiring more civilian contractors for such basic duties as guarding U.S. military bases.

Private security firms have taken over what traditionally was a sole province of the military. In a typical contract, Akal Security has been awarded $70 million to guard eight stateside Army bases.

Don't worry. Really.

Forget what you know about private security firms.

Oh yeah! Clinton destroyed the military! Tell it to all your Republican army buddies.

In Iraq, almost a third of the $4 billion monthly costs are going to private contractors. One foreign policy expert estimates the current Bush Administration has five times as many civilian contractors in Iraq as his father's administration did during the first Gulf War in 1991.5

The privatization practice, first explored when Cheney was Secretary of Defense for the senior Bush, led to an $8.9 million logistics contract for Brown and Root, a company Cheney later oversaw as head of Halliburton after he left government. Of approximately 3,000 civilian contracts awarded by the Pentagon since 1994, about 2,700 have gone to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root and one other firm.


I'm no Clinton apologist, but I sure would like to know what those military people who blame him for the state of the army have to say these days. I know a guy who's been in Iraq for a while who started out refusing to hear anything negative about the Bush administration and the military. Last e-mail I got from him says: " Don't understand what the Army is becoming."

Decimated, Hal. Demoralized. Devil's right arm. Dupe of the neocon's business interests. To name a few things.

But don't worry about its presence back home. If Rumsfeld closes 100 military bases, there won't be that many places left to worry over anyway.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.