In addition to receiving an estimated $1 billion in fees from the U.S. government since the Iraq war began, Blackwater is also ripping off U.S. taxpayers by recruiting U.S. soldiers while they are on duty:
Astonishingly, contractors are free to approach those in uniform, offer them generous salaries to leave their service in wartime, then profit from the skills your tax dollars taught them.
This isn’t just about Navy SEALS or other special operators. In intelligence, for example, we train young soldiers for complex missions and expensively process their security clearances – then contractors bribe them to leave the military, raking in big bucks from your investment in their new employee.
Blackwater contractor salaries are six times military pay:
Blackwater charges the government $1,222 per day per guard, “equivalent to $445,000 per year, or six times more than the cost of an equivalent U.S. soldier,” [according to a congressional report].
And the $445,000 figure probably doesn’t include benefits, perks or bonuses to be awarded upon completion of service.
If the salary of a military security officer is $74,000 (one-sixth of $445,000), the government would save $371,000 in pay for each of the estimated 1,000 Blackwater contractors deployed in Iraq — a total savings of $371 million per year.
Blackwater CEO Erik Prince is a major donor to the GOP and comes from a wealthy family that is highly connected in the Michigan Republican Party. It is unlikely Blackwater’s contracts will be terminated while the Bush regime is in power, but Congress should curtail the company’s practice of recruiting U.S. troops in the war zone.
I don’t think you are right in forming opinions about these things. All of your facts seem to be correct, but how you have tied them together and what rationales you have left out make your piece misinforming.
Special Operators are trained people. Take the U.S. Army special forces, the green berets colloquially. These individuals train for a year only after a grueling year long selection process. (They even have to master a foreign language.) Likewise, the U.S. Navy Seals go through an extensive training program that lasts about a year. This is an initial investment by the U.S. taxpayers. This is what is being taken advantage of by Blackwater worldwide.
However, the thing about training is that it must be done frequently. It’s also expensive. Blackwater pays for its training.
In actuality, if there was a commando for sale for $500,000 whom a government didn’t need to feed or train, it would be cheaper for the government to hire that individual than it would be to put ten 20-yr. old recruits through the expensive 18X pipeline only to get one special forces soldier in the end.
Why else would the government be hiring these individuals? I assure you there is no shortage of 20-yr. old males with dreams of heroism in our country.
It’s a good thing our grandfathers were the sort of money-grubbing unpatriotic jerks you’re describing or we’d all be speaking German and Japanese.
These guys are working against the interests of the U.S. government and are anti-American, by definition.
But, hey, don’t sweat it. Bush is borrowing the millions to pay the Blackwater mercenaries from the communist Chinese. What could possibly go wrong with that?