Rise
of the Fourth Reich
Congress
held hearings last week to get to the bottom of the torture and abuse at Abu
Ghraib prison in Iraq. How did it happen? Who knew what, when? While these
questions are interesting, they aren’t as important as others that were
touched upon or danced around.
Many
times it is the questions that are not asked and/or answered that are the most
revealing. Senator John McCain Arizona Republican asked one such question:
"Who were the civilian contractors that were involved in the
interrogations?" Donald Rumsfeld talked but he never answered. The question
that wasn’t asked was "WHY are civilian contractors engaged in sensitive
a military operations such as the interrogation of prisoners?"
To
answer the question, one need only understand the nature of the contracting
relationship with organizations. While the relationship between contractors and
organizations might start out clean--they deteriorate with familiarity and the
amount of money involved in the contract. The more money involved, the dirtier
the relationship evolves.
Contracting
firms pinpoint the superstars in an organization and they either hire them away
or they arrange for them to be eliminated. This leaves an organization with
second and third tier personnel. The less capable (i.e. incompetent) the
personnel of an organization are, the more dependent the organization is on the
contractors, the more money the contractors will make. For this reason,
contractors are like a cancer in an organization. In most cases, in long term
contracting relationships, the contractors end up running things and the
organization’s management becomes titular heads.
Later
in the hearing in answer to another question, it was stated that there were
‘shortages’ of qualified military personnel in the areas of linguistics and
interrogation so contractors were hired. Further it was stated that the
contractors were former military personnel. It also came out that the General in
charge of the prison ‘wasn’t allowed’ into the section where the
interrogations were occurring.
The
military leadership knew about the conditions at Abu Ghraib prison since
January. An investigation had been completed, but the report languished on
somebody’s desk at the defense department. Nobody considered it
‘radioactive’ as Rumsfeld called it, until pictures were about to be
televised.
The
failures to understand the implications of this incident were also apparent in
Donald Rumsfeld’s demeanor while he testified. Jon Stewart included some jokes
about it in his comedy program. When Rumsfeld said how terrible the abuse and
torture was, he was rather matter of fact about it. "It was terrible, just
terrible". The only time Rumsfeld showed emotion was when he was talking
about how everybody has digital cameras giving them the ability to take pictures
that could end up in the press. That REALLY upset him. It was clear that to
Rumsfeld’s, this was more a crisis of image than of character.
The
tragedy of this debacle is that the focal point is going to be on the enlisted
people depicted in the photographs. The real problem involves contractors
involved in military functions. The military walks a fine line. At its
fundamental level, the military is comprised of professional killers. Their
existence is made honorable by the high purpose of protecting and defending our
country. All of military training revolves patriotism and loyalty. Honor, Duty,
Country are priorities of the first order. The integration of private
contractors into military actions constitutes a dangerous corruption of military
values. It changes the priorities to Profit, Longevity of Contract and Image.
Considering
the seeming incompetence of both our Intelligence Agencies and the management of
the Iraqi War Theater, it shows a cancer in our military. The John Waynes in our
military have been replaced by the Colonel Klinks partnered with Gordon Gekkos
as contractors. A visit to the Department of Defense web site bears that out.
Under the heading of ‘Transformation’, the transcript and diagrams of a
speech given by Admiral E.P. Giambastiani, states that ‘Transformation’ is
the corporatization of the military. The following is an excerpt from his
speech:
http://www.jfcom.mil/newslink/storyarchive/2004/sp031704.htm