PRIVATISATION OF WAR

Village Voice: Rumsfeld Aims to Privatize the Military

WASHINGTON, D.C.—If Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has his way, the vaunted U.S. military of the future will be transformed into what amounts to corporate-owned units. The daffy secretary calls his plan "outsourcing." The intention, he claims, is to put the lid on money going into expanding of the army so it can be diverted to new technologies such as Rummy's favorite hobby, fighting wars from space.

MG: Corporations are Now Biggest Ally of the U.S. in Iraq


Private corporations have penetrated western warfare so deeply that
they are now the second biggest contributor to coalition forces in Iraq
after the Pentagon, a Guardian investigation has established. While the
official coalition figures list the British as the second largest contingent
with around 9 900 troops, they are narrowly outnumbered by the 10,000
private military contractors now on the ground. The investigation has also
discovered that the proportion of contracted security personnel in the
firing line is 10 times greater than during the first Gulf war. In
1991, for every private contractor, there were about 100 servicemen and
women; now there are 10. The private sector is so firmly embedded in combat,
occupation and peacekeeping duties that the phenomenon may have reached
the point of no return: the US military would struggle to wage war without
it.