Using high-paid mercenaries insults American troops

How would you feel if you showed up to work and your boss hired someone who was paid 10 times your salary to do similar work? Then the next day you found that your new co-worker started killing customers, and the rules for you and him were different. He just gets sent home.

This is the very question many of our soldiers are asking as it relates to contracting out military functions to firms like Blackwater USA.

My son Andrew is in Afghanistan serving his third tour of duty in the Middle East as a front-line combat soldier. During his deployments, he has come in contact with civilian contractors doing jobs that in the past were exclusively done by military personnel. He was offended and astonished when he saw the money these individuals were paid.

There are significant moral and fiscal questions arising from this administration’s attempt to privatize the military. This is especially disturbing in light of the effort at the beginning of these conflicts to actually cut the combat pay for U.S. military personnel.

Looking at human history and the associated military conflicts, mercenaries and privateers are nothing new. However, from a historical perspective, it should also be noted that there is a direct correlation between the use of mercenaries and the decline of a civilization.

In a well-documented case, a private “security” employee of Blackwater, while intoxicated, shot and killed the personal bodyguard of the vice president of Iraq. After this took place, he was sent home and fined $1,000.

The use of private “soldiers” in combat zones degrades the image and morale of our troops. Using our hard-earned tax dollars to pay them is an insult and slap in the face to those serving in our military who took an oath to defend our constitutional freedoms.

My son has told me how he feels in combat when he runs into private “soldiers” who are paid 10 times his salary. We not only demoralize our troops, we tell them that their contribution to their country isn’t worth very much.

It is morally imperative that we stop using mercenaries and only use military personnel who have actually taken an oath to defend our Constitution. Furthermore, no contractor of any kind should be paid more than an American soldier serving in combat.

Supporting our troops begins with not demeaning them. They shouldn’t be forced to work alongside mercenaries and be insulted by the wages paid to these people who have no sworn allegiance or moral obligation, as our soldiers do.

As we look at the behavior of these private “security” soldiers, we must ask: Are we losing American troops because of retaliation for the behavior of these individuals? In a recent week, three soldiers in my son’s unit – Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Blaskowski, 27; Pfc. Christopher Pfeifer, 21; and Pfc. Matthew Taylor, 21 – were killed in action. Should their family members even have to be considering this question? Should any American?

State Rep. Chris Hurst, D-Enumclaw, has a son serving his third Army deployment in Iraq; a nephew was killed there.