May 19 2006
This just came down from Corporate:
For Immediate Release
Corporate HQ-
We have recently been awarded a contract to secure the United States.
Formerly a function of the Federal Government, securing our national perimeter has become a corporate function, and we will strive to extract the most profit possible from this endeavor.
Please go about your business.
Thank you,
Corporate
Bush Turns to Big Military Contractors for Border Control:
"'This is an unusual invitation,' the deputy secretary of homeland security, Michael Jackson, told contractors this year at an industry briefing, just before the bidding period for this new contract started. 'We're asking you to come back and tell us how to do our business.'"
That sounds just about right to me. No suprise at all. At least he is honest about it.
For a long time, I would counter the de-regulation crowd with an argument for a privatized military. It was fun.
It no longer is fun. It is a reality.
Security markets finance our national debt.
War companies are making record profits.
Private contractors are being used to do all kinds of functions that the army used to do. It's 'cheaper'.
I think that making the border into a high tech surveillance zone is a real bad idea. Because, as we know, when involved in markets it's grow or die.
How long will it be until the border gets to be a saturated market? How long until the inner city gets the same treatment?
A border security market...Grow or die...Profit before people...
Does this scare anybody else?