They claim the military is depleted. Is that related to how we use contractors for so much now?

[brewens]

It seems to me we use all these contractors, Blackwater or whatever it's called now and others I can't name. It's supposed to have been a great deal for us. Those guys doing jobs the military doesn't have to any more, freeing up our troops for more vital duties. I never believed for a second it would really work that way.

Especially if it's overseas. They pay top dollar to guys that left the military to work for them. They charge us enough to cover everything including living expenses just like they were 24/7 military anyway, plus enough to make a nice profit. We also get to pay to train new guys to replace the troops they lured away. How is that a good deal?

They cost us big time when their paramilitary types kill innocent civilians and cause other problems. We have horror stories of shoddy construction, contaminated water, laundry, food, you name it. They probably made a couple plane loads of cash disappear too. I'd say a few people know that cash went right where it was supposed to go, and is safely stashed in offshore accounts.

Now that we've been giving away fortunes to the contractors, they can claim the military isn't big enough because they made it that way. Now we need to spend even more. Legalized looting courtesy of Dick Cheney.

[Atman]

1. Its a numbers trick

We rely heavily on private contractors for many military functions now. So there are fewer military personnel doing those jobs, but they’re still getting done. They can then point to those reduced numbers to say “we’re depleted!” and get more money for for-profit wars.

[ProfessorGAC]

2. And "It" Just Tweeted. . .

. . .that the military is in a better position than ever(!). So, they're depleted but in the best place ever. Interesting dichotomy, no?

Which is it R's?

[Ilsa]

7. He wants us to believe that suddenly, within 14 months,

there are an extra 50% helicopters, boats of various types in the navy, and aircraft protecting the US and fighting the "different people over there."

[DrDan]

3. I worked in Saudi for several years, and spent a lot of time at the Ministry of Defense

the running joke was - "Today Saudi declared war on Israel. The Koreans won the contract."

I guess we are headed to a similar end.

Privatization seems to be the solution to many of our ills . . . at least to the gop.

[mn9driver]

4. 15 years of war will do that.

Every branch of the military has been in a pretty much continuous combat deployment rotation since 2003. This includes the National Guard.

Equipment wears out when it is used in a heavy operations environment. People wear out, too. Congress has never admitted this. Thry appropriate money for things the military does not want or need, while failing to fund the things that really need money if we are going to do this.

The true cost of being on a perpetual war footing ultimately caused the collapse of the Soviet Union. It will eventually cause the collapse of the United States. Our country is more like the Soviets than most people are willing to admit.

[Orsino]

5. No. They claimed the military was depleted to help hike its budget.

But today's rich is tomorrow's spitballs.

[Lee-Lee]

6. Your Blackwater and other armed contractors mostly didnt work for the military

Typically they were employed by the State Department and others who wanted their own security forces that would not have to depend on military forces.

Most of the contractors used by the military are ones doing logistical jobs. Driving trucks. Driving the shuttle bus in larger bases. Repairing vehicles beyond what the military mechanics do. Managing logistics flow. Running dining facilities on larger bases.

The truth is what they do there is a pretty accurate reflection of what you see done on stateside military bases. Civilian employees make up most of the cooks in dining facilities. Civilians run the repair shops that do the major repairs and overhauls. Civilians run the trucks that move supplies.

That move started long ago, because civilian employees are way cheaper to use on base than uniformed personnel and are also way more efficient. The military is organized to run without them in the field in a full-scale conflict, for example they did during the initial invasions on Iraq and Afghanistan. However once you get into establishing large bases overseas troops live and work out of then they have to use contractors to support those same aspects that civilian employees do on stateside bases.

[hack89]

8. They depend on contractors to allow them to grow and shrink the military as needed.

depending on contractors for logistics, training and other non-combat roles means no long term budgetary commitments for pensions, medical, etc. Allow more money to go into operations and equipment.