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這次的美伊戰爭製造了不少工作機會
尤其是具有特勤專長的人, 美英兩國許多特勤士兵
申請退伍然後去伊拉克, 阿富汗工作 (保護政府官員
或是輸油設施, 人員訓練....).
Special Forces Cannibals
The Pentagon is planning to offer $150,000
bonuses in an expensive attempt to keep
members of its elite Special Forces —
Navy Seals, Green Berets and specially
trained Air Force squads — from jumping
ship to take more lucrative civilian
jobs with U.S. contractors. The number
of Special Forces soldiers, pivotal
to “hunt the insurgent leadership, train
Iraqi forces and guard senior members
of the emerging government in Baghdad,”
has greatly fallen off since May 2003.
It’s all part of a vicious circle of
inefficiency that ultimately leaves
Uncle Sam broke, the military facing
a shortage of trained personnel and
contractors laughing all the way to
the bank.
Here’s how it works. First, the military
uses taxpayer money — and it’s not
cheap — to train these special forces.
With their special skills, these troops
are currently in high demand in places
like Kabul and Baghdad.
At the same time, the U.S. government
also spends billions of dollars every
year to hire big, for-profit companies
like Halliburton’s KBR or CACI to take
over a lot of the duties traditionally
performed by the military.
These companies promptly hire the elite
soldiers away from the military for much
higher salaries. The average senior
special ops officer, for example, makes
about $50,000 a year from the U.S.
government; contractors quadruple that
salary to about $200,000. The
corporations charge the U.S. government
for the salary and expenses (and tack
on a nice profit for themselves on
top of that.)
In effect, the United States is paying
corporations to cannibalize the best
and brightest from America’s military.
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/02/07/special-forces-cannibals/ |
