The Military-Industrial Complex Goes All Lord of the Flies

I want you all to remember a simpler time.

It's April 30, 1975. And we are on the roof of a US Embassy in Southeast Asia. A large number of tanks and heavy infantry are on the way. And you can bet your sweet ass that the US Embassy is on the top of the list of places they will be visiting. The Embassy has been evacuated. It's staff is on the USS Blue Ridge somewhere in the South China Sea. The last helicopters of Operation Frequent wind are on their way to pick up the last Americans at the Embassy: it's guards, the US Marines. They will board the helicopters and leave. Thus will end the American adventure in Vietnam.

Now, I realize that the Fall of Saigon wasn't really a simple time, but bare with me.

In Kabul, recently, we had a bit of a scandal at another US Embassy. The guards were going all Lord of the Flies on each other. Weird rituals. Hazing. Alcohol in, well, excess. Madness and insanity. Total fear and loathing.

Now, if that had happened in Vietnam we would have seen a number of Courts Martial. We would have seen some Marine ass get seriously chewed.

Of course, it didn't happen, because Marines, particularly those assigned to Embassy duties, would never have let it happen. This is because they are professionals. Even the wide eyed kids who join up have a remarkable respect for the dignity of the uniform and the abilities of their superiors to make their lives a living hell when they screw up.

The reason it happened in Kabul, of course, is that the Embassy guards are no longer US Marines. They work for a company called ArmorGroup, which is a subsidiary of our friends at Wackenhut.

Yes, we privatized Embassy security.

The most politically important and dignified form of military service has been outsourced to a lowest bid contractor.

When did this seem like a good idea. When did it seem sane and reasonable to replace professionals whose asses we essentially, well, own, for a bunch of guys we know nothing about.

We have embarrassed ourselves badly here. And we have done so because we keep thinking that the free market is going to save us. That it is ever redemptive.

The free market cannot replace a SEAL Team- no matter what Blackwater says. The free market cannot replace proper support facilities and personnel- no matter what Bechtel or Halliburton say. And it certainly cannot replace a Marine guard at an Embassy- no matter what some yahoo at Wackenhut says or some idiot at the State Department thinks.

Some things the military, and the government in general, just do better than private industry. Some things, you just can't replace with contractors. The free market isn't ever redemptive. And sometimes the invisible hand is picking your pocket.

In this case, it didn't pick our pocket so much as steal our dignity.

E.