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BREAKING NEWS!
The US Army announced Friday, 10 July, that it intends to add an additional 15,000 combat troops in Afghanistan, effective 1 January 2010.
This is in addition to the recent increases of 17,000 and 4,000.
President Obama doesn’t need any Congressional review or approval for this latest troop increase, which appears to be in response to General McChrystal’s assessment on Thursday, 9 July, that he doesn’t have enough troops.
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=op…
Talk about your quick response!
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The Defense Department doesn’t need to get Congressional approval for this troop increase because these combat troops will be Mercenaries. Since Mercenaries are hired as contractors, and since the Congress has already appropriated the money to pay for them, the Army has de facto carte blanche to privatize as much of the ground combat as needed.
If the Army was going to send additional active duty or reserve soldiers or Marines, the President still has effective authority to do that without consulting Congress, despite what the Constitution says. Those in Congress could always cite Article I Section 8, but who among the Republicans is going to undermine the prosecution of a George Bush vanity war, and who among the Democrats is going to hold President Obama to the limits in that quaint old piece of paper ?
This troop increase won’t put more uniformed military in Afghanistan, but will permit reassigning 15,000 who are now guarding FOB’s and convoys to get out and interact more directly with the local population, whether through presence patrols or firefights.
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Me, I don’t like having Mercenaries representing the USA in the most sensitive of all duties, wielding lethal force to influence the local population. This indicates to me that General McChrystal has thrown in the towel on that whole notion of winning hearts and minds.
But if we don’t bother to think through why we are fighting in Afghanistan, and if we don’t have any plan for achieving specific goals and pulling out, then I guess a move like this isn’t going to undermine a plan that doesn’t exist.
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Are these active military personnel who will be privatized? Or are these people who are presently outside of our armed forces? Or both?
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when he first came into office, Prez Obama said he wanted to do a top-to-bottom review of the war in Afghanistan before deciding anything. Of course, ever since the election, he had been getting full briefings on the situation, but it made sense to get his team of advisors and chain of command in place before any major overhaul.
When his 45-day review was over, he announced his strategy for that war, and explained why we were still fighting there. It boiled down to inertia, near as I could tell.
He also announced a troop surge of 17,000.
A couple weeks later, after his new commander in that war, General McChrystal, said he need 4,000 more to train up the Afghani Army, on top of the 20,000 that had been doing that since 2002, Prez Obama added another 4,000 military.
2 weeks ago NSA Jones told Petraeus, McChrystal and Nicholson that they have to make do with what they’ve got, for now, because he isn’t going to recommend any new troop increases until he sees if the recent increases (17000 + 4000) make a difference.
My guess, McChrystal asked if it would be OK to hire more armed security personnel through the Private Military Company contractors, and got that OK’ed.
The link above is to an announcement that the Army is hiring thousands of what I call Mercenaries, which will then permit military personnel to be reassigned from perimeter security on the bases and convoy security on the roads, to join combat units doing the “friendly military occupation” clear-hold-build thing.
By my estimate, there couldn’t be more than 5,000 to 7,000 military people tied up in perimeter security and convoy security. But if what happened in Iraq is any indication, when missions are contracted out, 2 to 3 Mercenaries are hired for every soldier or Marine being replaced.
So, Contractor shooters are being brought in so that military personnel can be sent out on combat patrols.
Most likely the folks being brought in are retired or ex-military from countries like El Salvador, South Africa or Nepal.
Dale Carnegie, who advised us how to win friends and influence people, would be proud.
Yes, we are going to win all kinds of hearts and minds with reckless, unaccountable Mercenaries out meeting the public, running them off the roads, and shooting them for sport.
In our name.
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