A handout to cronies.

Remember when Dick Cheney, called out by a reporter for doing a misdeed, replied, "So????" Dick, and a name so richly deserved in your case, American ambassador and Navy Seal deaths (and now soldiers at more risk everywhere in the world ) is why your behavior with privatizing security to a few buddies of yours cost the U.S. dearly overseas. I wish that guys like you, when in office, would have exercised a more thoughtful form of judgment that could have benefited the general public overseas. Alas, you did not. Sleep tight.

in the middle of such militarily organized madness.

Most of the combat troops in Vietnam were there against their will.

The mercenaries in Afghanistan sought those jobs out. They want to be there.

Most of the troops in Vietnam made minimum wage for what was essentially convict labor.

Last edited Wed Oct 17, 2012, 06:37 PM - Edit history (1)

That's not a name I've noticed before, but they've apparently been around for a long time and are a major DoD outsourcer.

http://nation.time.com/2012/08/20/better-late-than-never-3/

Interesting Pentagon contract buried deep in the long list it announced Friday. The Army awarded nearly $15 million to Jorge Scientific of Arlington, Va., to “provide for the modification of an existing contract to research and develop a methodology for counter insurgency operations. Work will be performed in Arlington and Afghanistan…”

To develop a methodology for COIN ops in Afghanistan? Heck, we arrived on Oct. 7, 2001, and we still don’t have a counter-insurgency plan? Not only that — we’ve got to hire outsiders to do it? Even as we’re planning to pull all our combat troops out by the end of 2014?

Turns out this is at least the third contract along these lines Jorge has received since November, totaling $77 million.

Last Nov. 9, the Army awarded Jorge a $21,100,003 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract “to design new doctrine and training to answer the gaps in current operations as indentified by [Afghanistan's] Regional Command East. Work will be performed in Afghanistan, with an estimated completion date of June 20, 2013. There were 999 bids solicited, with 999 bids received.” Let’s hope the Army was more accurate with its count of the money than its count of those soliciting and bidding on this contract.

Anyway, such competition apparently evaporated like the morning dew in the next two contracts, both of which involved only a single solicitation, and a single bidder: Jorge.

http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Jorge-Scientific-Reviews-E377982.htm

Pros – The company has better than average salary ranges, and the medical, dental, and vision plans are among the national average. It's a small company where everyone knows you, and they seem to care.

Cons – A few of the managers are in positions over their level of expertise. Decisions are made hastily at times without all the information, which has caused a negative effect among the employees lowering morale.

Are we pulling out or merely privatizing the operation?

war fluctuates between soul numbing boredom, violence and terror. Getting fucked up is the only respite from it. Mercenaries should never be part of a free people's armed forces, not because they're human but because of what they represent.