Punditman says...Last night punditman watched "State of Play," the 2009 movie with Russell Crowe, Helen Mirren, Ben Affleck, and Rachel McAdams. Punditman highly recommends it. Among other issues, it deals with the subject of the outsourcing of war for profit through mercenary armies. Art imitating life.
by Tim Shorrock
As American commanders meet this week for the Afghanistan review, Obama is hiring military contractors at a rate that would make Bush blush. Tim Shorrock on the Blackwater heirs.
Top U.S. commanders are meeting this week to plan for the next phase of the Afghanistan war. In Iraq, meanwhile, gains are tentative and in danger of unraveling.
Both wars have been fought with the help of private military and intelligence contractors. But despite the troubles of Blackwater in particular – charges of corruption and killing of civilians—and continuing controversy over military outsourcing in general, private sector armies are as involved as ever.
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