Powell om private hærer

Private Powell

Submitted by Rick Perlstein on September 15, 2007 – 1:25pm.

Here’s a bizarre new interview with Colin Powell. He simultaneously warns against a «terror-industrial complex»-«an industry that only exists as long as you keep the terrorist threat pumped up»-and goes on to defend blithely defend the outsourcing of security and combat positions to Blackwater and other private contractors.

War profiteering goooood; just not too much.

He’s asked, «Is it fair to pay these contractors more than soldiers get when they take comparable risk?» Yes, indeedy, it is: «You pay what is necessary to get somebody to do the job as a civilian…. It’s not a matter of fairness. It’s, if you need these people you have to pay them a wage that will get them there. You’re competing in an open labor market.»

Of course that’s nonsense, as the interviewer usefully points up in a followup: «Why can’t we use, say, the Army to protect people like Bremer and the ambassador instead of companies like Blackwater?» His answer-soldiers have better things to do than be bodyguards-is silly. He’s uncomfortable, and turns on his heels to leave. He’s no Dwight D. Eisenhower. He strikes me, in fact, as rather a creep, and one eager to preserve his options in the marketplace to boot.

The interview, by the way, was by a college journalist. Can’t expect our dithering professionals to be quite so sharp and penetrating.