Let’s be cynical for a moment by suggesting that one of the reasons Iraq has become a Forever War is the billions and billions of dollars being made from it not just by stateside defense contractors, but all of the camp-follower companies that now have more employees in the war zone than there are U.S. soldiers.
Perhaps that’s not cynical at all, but an unpleasant conclusion that is reinforced by three inter-related realities:
* There never were remotely enough troops to do the job in Iraq, which is why civilians are performing many tasks that traditionally are the purview of the uniformed services. These civilians include out-and-out armed American mercenaries who are paid many times more than enlisted men and officers.
* If there’s money to be made from misery, American contractors will muscle their way to the front of the line.
* Shock of shocks, many of those contractors are hard-wired to the Bush administration through sweetheart deals awarded on the basis of their loyalty to the Republican Party and campaign fundraising largess.
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