Perhaps in the near future instead of going off on some safari looking for a bad guy let us be honest and call ourselves what we are, mercenaries. It would be much more honest if we hired ourselves to fight wars. When the piggy bank runs dry...we leave. It is so much easier on the national budget and more profitable.

It's probably the same folks who complain about higher taxes who don't have a problem with another $500 million of our money being wasted here.
How many U.S. schools and bridges could be rebuilt with $500 million.

Before this entire charade is over it's going to cost the U.S. tax payers 2 trillion dollars.

Now tell me who is the TAX and SPEND party.

Contracting has been around a long time its quick and usually they have better equipment because they don't have to use the bogged down procurement system that usually means by the time the troops get the gear its already obsolete. An example when the military was providing Helo service to embassy personnel in Beirut it was costing mint $$$$$$ per month. State Dept had to reimburse the Military for the total cost of each chopper. When they contracted out to Petroleum Helicopters LTD they had better all weather night flying helecopters with heat and A/C and nice plush seating, and it was 100s of thousands of dollars cheaper per month who WON the CONTRACTORS.... Think about it!

Mercenarys are mercenarys. Private Army's should be banned regardless of who they were built to work for. Blackwater, DynCorp and TripleCanopy are all mercenarys. It's simple. If you can't fight a war using the nations military, don't fight it.

BTW, we can't fight it so we should pack up and come home. Between inept civilian leadership and inept theater commanders - we have no ability to do anything. We might as well come home.

That's incredibly silly, Cap'n America...think about the context in which you are speaking about contracted help...

The story reads that the State Dept is hiring private firms to provide air transportation services for it's staff in Iraq. mercenary? lol semantic baloney, dude...

Are private airlines who ferry State Dept personnel or members of congress also "mercenaries"?
How about the Philipino workers that serve food in the mess halls on military bases across the world? Mercenaries?

How about the American welders and pipefitters who are contracted to work on US Naval ships in the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Virginia?
When we went through the Suez Canal on a battleship, the US Navy contracted Egyptian watermen to pilot the ship through Port Said and the canal...let me guess...mercenaries?

Get a grip, man...it's economics. ABC News ran a story and worded it such so that people like you would get their panties in a bunch and cry over spilled milk...

Hmmmm.........private jets before 9/11, now private helicopters. Anyone else smell something brewing? Why would troops coming home to protect our soil be a problem? Why does this come more than 30 days before Gen. Petraeus' report? I smell, sniff sniff.............special interest groups. Hope everyone has their spare gas cans filled just in case.

Government contractors serve a number of purposes. First, it is cost effective as the government only pays for the contract as long as they need it. They dont have to ramp up the military to handle the extra work load. Contractors do support jobs that allow the military to do the war job.

Can you imagine how little time any of our troops would have at home if they had to take up the 60000 contractor jobs as well as the 120000 to 160000 they now have? Our men and women in uniform would never see the states again.

Does Blackwater pay well for these propaganda post. I know Cheney pays the religous , private , conservative , private mersenaries more in one month then our soldiers receive in one year.
Blackwater rides around doing as they d... well please with no laws , regulations and answers to no one for their illegal actions.
The only persons profiting from this war are the war contractors , friends of Cheney and this administration. There has been no oversight to where our tax dollars go and what in the h... happens to it.
Of course they know where in the h... the money is spent (given) , this is why everything is keep secret or no paper work is available.
Anyone believing that Cheney which was CEO of Halliburton doesn't know how to prepare books and Cook the books is only kidding themselves or lying......
PS....

Pete, you're funny, dude...members of the US military are making money from their service, too...and what "propaganda posts" are you speaking about? Kirit's non-story? lol

The US is planning an eventual withdrawal of combat troops (that's what you want, right?). With the drawdown of troops, OF COURSE the embassy/State Dept personnel will have to rely on private services.

Anyway, military contractors were being utilized before the current administration, and will be used long after...Do you even know what YOU'RE talking about? Clue in...go get some air...