Study: Pentagon reliance on contractors hurt US in 9/11 wars

[Eugene]

Related: The Profits of War - Costs of War (Watson Institute - Brown University)

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Source: Associated Press

Study: Pentagon reliance on contractors hurt US in 9/11 wars

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
September 13, 2021

Up to half of the $14 trillion spent by the Pentagon since 9/11 went to for-profit defense contractors, a study released Monday found. It’s the latest work to argue the U.S. reliance on private corporations for war-zone duties that used to be done by troops contributed to mission failure in Afghanistan.

In the post-9/11 wars, U.S. corporations contracted by the Defense Department not only handled war-zone logistics like running fuel convoys and staffing chow lines but performed mission-crucial work like training and equipping Afghan security forces — security forces that collapsed last month as the Taliban swept the country.

Within weeks, and before the U.S. military had even completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban easily routed an Afghan government and military that Americans had spent 20 years and billions of dollars to stand up. President Joe Biden placed blame squarely on the Afghans themselves. “We gave them every chance,” he said last month. “What we could not provide them was the will to fight.”

But William Hartung, the author of Monday’s study by Brown University’s Costs of War project and the Center for International Policy, and others say it’s essential that Americans examine what role the reliance on private contractors played in the post-9/11 wars. In Afghanistan, that included contractors allegedly paying protection money to warlords and the Taliban themselves, and the Defense Department insisting on equipping the Afghan air force with complex Blackhawk helicopters and other aircraft that few but U.S. contractors knew how to maintain.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-middle-east-business-afghanistan-taliban-3f66d407542879a95b26608eee08a07e

[ShazamIam]

1. Yes but all that government money was used to build up those private military services, who sell

their services all over the globe and use soldiers from all over as well. And it is my guess that most of the U.S. private military were first trained in one of the U.S. Services. And did I mention how I think it is ridiculous and dangerous to have such a military presence?

[Enter stage left]

2. Ike warned us, we were too stupid to listen.

[Orrex]

3. Only if the goal of those wars was to win them

Since the actual goal was to funnel trillions into the pockets of the super-wealthy, I'd say that the wars were a resounding success!

[alwaysinasnit]

4. And yet we continue to throw more and more $$ into the sinkhole of the Defense budget.