Get sick, get well
Hang around a ink well
Ring bell, hard to tell
If anything is goin' to sell
-- Bob Dylan

Sunday, February 12, 2012

The privatization of war parallels education trends

I don't think so
The erosion and selling off of public space isn't limited to public education. This loss of public decision making and government transparency and accountability is the biggest threat to any democratic system of government. The latest news from the Afghan killing fields should do the privatizers proud. This from today's New York Times:
Many American generals and diplomats have private contractors for their personal bodyguards. And along with the risks have come the consequences: More civilian contractors working for American companies than American soldiers died in Afghanistan last year for the first time during the war.
That trend has been growing for the past several years in Afghanistan, and it parallels a similar trend in Iraq, where contractor deaths exceeded military deaths as long ago as 2009, not to mention the thousands of contractors seriously wounded. The biggest contractor in terms of war zone deaths is apparently the defense giant L-3 Communications. If L-3 were a country, it would have the third highest loss of life in Afghanistan as well as in Iraq; only the United States and Britain would exceed it in fatalities.

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