Between Scylla and Charybdis
There are many other things I could be writing about. But I got sidetracked by teacherken:
I am angry. I despair. I am outraged. I am exhausted. I teach about a government that perhaps no longer exists, one that had three co-equal branches, that had checks and balances, in which the power of the executive was limited, in which governmental functions were done by governmental employees subject to Congressional oversight….Where is the outrage over this? Where is the insistence by Democrats and honest Republicans for accountability? Why is the press so hesitant to fully scrutinize?
He’s responding to Bill Moyer’s interview with Jeremy Scahill about the private security force, Blackwater USA and Congressional hearings about the recent shooting of several dozen Iraqi civilians.
BILL MOYERS:: Didn’t I read somewhere that one of our generals said we couldn’t be here without Blackwater and these other companies? We couldn’t be occupying. Or something to that effect?
JEREMY SCAHILL: Yeah. I mean, well, General Petraeus himself has been guarded by private contractors in Iraq. I mean, what message did that send when the general who’s overseeing the surge in Iraq is guarded at times not by the US military, but by private forces.
BILL MOYERS:: What message does that send?
JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, I think it sends a message that the United States military is essentially a subservient player to a corporate army in Iraq.
BILL MOYERS:: I don’t read that. I read it that Blackwater is the corollary to the– complement to the essential lode star for the military.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, Erik Prince likes to describe Blackwater as the sort of Federal Express of the national security apparatus. He says if you want a package to get somewhere, do you send it through the post office or do you send it through FedEx? But the fact is, the US military is the junior partner in the coalition that’s occupying Iraq to these private companies. There are over 170 mercenary companies like Blackwater operating in Iraq right now. That’s almost as many nations as are registered at the UN. And I think this isn’t just about Iraq. It’s also looting the US treasury.
BILL MOYERS:: What does it say that this industry has become so essential, this peace and stability industry– these mercenaries as you call them.
JEREMY SCAHILL: Right. Well, I think we’re in the midst of the most radical privatization agenda in our nation’s history. We of course see it in schools. We see it in the health care system, in prisons. And now, we’re seeing it full blown in the war machine. What I ultimately see as the real threat here is that the system of the very existence of the nation state I think is at stake here. Because you have companies now that have been funded with billions of dollars in public money using that money to then build up the infrastructure of private armies some of which could take out a small national military. And the old model used to be if a company wants to go into Nigeria for instance and exploit oil, they have to work with the juntas forces in order to do that. Now, you can just bring in your own private military force.
BILL MOYERS:: Is it conceivable to you that these private contractors could be– could wind up fighting the war against drugs in Columbia? Fighting the terrorists–
JEREMY SCAHILL: They already are.
Scahill claims that the real revolution in American politics is the privatization of public institutions, a process that is “tearing away at the fabric of American democracy” through the funneling of billions of dollars of public money to private businesses - money that finds its way back into the campaign funds of politicians who are making it happen to begin with.
Teacherken is outraged that the Democrats elected in 2006 aren’t vigorously challenging this trend. But Democrats are politicians, too.
Scahill says that there are over 170 of these companies in Iraq. They’re also in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Columbia. They’re hiring soldiers from all over the world and deploying them wherever they have contracts. So, I ask, what might it take to put these guys on the streets anywhere in the world?
Makes talking about educational technology, school reform, and literacy education seem kind of unimportant at the moment. Except that they are all connected to the privatization revolution. Take the merit pay and teacher unions issue, for example.
a. woody delauder wrote,
I believe that this is definately an appropriate subject to be talking about. We need to get a handle on these companies that have billion dollar contracts in Iraq. These companies are there for reasons ranging from security of military officials to performing background checks of captured Iraqi’s. Shouldn’t our military be performing these functions.
I have a friend that is in Iraq at the moment, not in the military, but working for a private contractor. He works 6 months on and 6 months off. He will bring home over $150,000 this year tax free. He sits in an office on a secured base and does background checks for 6 hours a day. This company must have an incredible amount of money flowing in… I wonder where this money comes from?
The facts are disturbing… I just wish they were all made available to us so we knew the complete truth. Thanks for the post!
Link | October 21st, 2007 at 8:13 am
» Mirrors in the Privatization Revolution Tending the Kinder-Garden wrote,
[...] clean my entire house before I could determine whether or not it was prudent for me to comment on Doug’s powerful blog, “Between Scylla and Charybdis“. Prudent because I’m a military spouse, living on a military post, supportive of my [...]
Link | October 21st, 2007 at 9:41 am
Aloysius Wald wrote,
I, too, went through a bout of depression after watching the Moyers/Scahill interview. Where, I asked myself, is the morality to make decisions that are both reasoned and humane. I puzzled over this question, and the larger implication that the American institutions of power have, quite literally, gone mad.
One of the touchstones in my life has long been Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo. I won’t go into all the reasons why this is so, but it has always been there to provide a literary wisdom. I am currently reading the Penguin Classics edition, translated by Robin Buss. And, again, I found wisdom within the pages.
Institutional morality is in reality, nonexistant. The only true morality exists in each individual. Every person develops and carries their own morality. Institutional morality is the sum total of the morality of the individuals that make up the institution. Organizations like Blackwater can only exist when people who are morally lacking, or, who are amoral, create and foster the organization. Persons who choose to belong to such an organization and who promote its tenets are individually, morally, deranged.
Only by teaching humanity and reasoning can individuals find their own moral compass and make decisions that reject the immoral chaos of organizations like Blackwater. That teaching comes from caring, wise parents and teachers. And that means that there must be involvement, not absentee parenting. In regards to education, too much investment in foolishness like the “No Child Left Behind” legislation and the loss of school communities, leave the creation of humane and moral direction to politicians (with their vested interests).
After six years of a neo Dark Age, we could certainly do with the return of a New Renaissance. I hope, that with some effort, we will see this come to pass.
Link | October 22nd, 2007 at 9:51 am