There have been several things that have been bothering me lately. One of them arose while I was watching Robert Greenwald's documentary, Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers. The movie details how the Bush Administration has privatized much of the military, or more accurately, many former military functions. He goes in depth about the contracts given to KBR, Halliburton, and Blackwater USA. Of course, this military privatization has had its consequences. The company which now serves the meals to the troops (I can't remember if it is KBR or Halliburton), in the well-established capitalist policy of "cutting costs" and "increasing profits", decided to offer meals only at select times, rather than continually as was always done in previous military engagements. So now, at our bases in Iraq, come meal time, there is always a LONG line to the mess hall. This creates a massive security risk as all a terrorist or insurgent has to do is know when our troops have meal time so that they can plan a big attack and kill many soldiers.

Another great blunder: again, not sure if it is KBR or Halliburton, but the company that handled the water for the marines at a base, again with the intention of "cutting costs" did a lackluster job in making sure the water was clean. The result is that countless numbers of soldiers coming home from Iraq may be carrying deadly pathogens.

And let's not forget Blackwater USA. If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, and looks like a duck, then it's probably a duck. So, let's be honest: Blackwater is a mercenary corporation. In the movies, mercenaries are the bad guys who try to get their hands on some piece of weaponry just so they can sell it for a profit. In Iraq, they're the ones who have taken over many security jobs that was once the exclusive responsibility of the military. And now the Bush Administration is trying to tell us that they're the good guys.

Of course, Blackwater has consistently failed to provide vehicles that are armored enough to withstand IEDs. Most of our soldiers, and consequently, many of Blackwater's soldiers have died as a result of IED explosions. Properly armored vehicles are not high on Blackwater's priority list.

Watching Greenwald's film showed me the folly of the privatization of our military. Remember the $9 billion that was lost? No, privatization is not more efficient or cost-effective. At least not in this case.

Then, after reading some more news articles, it occurred to me that we have privatized many things that shouldn't be privatized, or there are serious proposals and/or policies that are encouraging privatization (or the next closest thing). We've privatized health care. We've privatized prisons. We've privatized much of our intelligence gathering apparatus. Many want to privatize (or at least have run like competing corporations) our public schools, in addition to social security. Couple that with our recent military privatization, and we've got a scary picture of privatizing nearly everything.

Again, such a thought reminds me of what economist Michael Walker said in regards to being confronted with, "It sounds like you're advocating private ownership of every square inch of the planet. Every cubic foot of air, water," in The Corporation:

"Absolutely. It sounds outlandish to say we want to have the whole universe, the whole of the earth owned. That doesn't mean I want to have Joe Bloggs owning this square foot. But it means the interests that are involved in that stream are owned by some group or by some people who have an interest in maintaining it. And that, you know, is not such a loony idea. It's in fact, the solution to a lot of these problems."

I'm not comfortable with the idea of relinquishing everything to private enterprise. For one thing, much of the time, things don't pan out the way these free-market extremists say they're going to. Our private health care system leaves millions not getting medical care at all and even more getting less than they need because they don't have the right insurance plan (this is justified because, to the conservatives and libertarians who defend our current system, health care is not a right but a service you have to pay for). Private prisons, as research indicates, do not save the taxpayers money and are, for all intents and purposes, more dangerous for both inmates and the public in general (see this Mother Jones). Privatizing our intelligence-gathering apparatus has created a situation whereby false intelligence can fuel invasion and a continuation of a conflict. In other words, perpetual fear, even if untrue, is profitable and desirable. Introducing competition into our public school system has shown in some cases that performance is not improved. Further, many poor students would still be left behind and funding for poorer schools would get worse. And privatizing social security won't yield the kind of return it says, and may even provide less money to the elderly than our current social security would. Privatizing it, like they have in Britain, would put more elderly people into poverty. (On a side note, read the link to the Rolling Stone's interview with Paul Krugman, who believes that the Bush Administration as well as many social security-privatization fanatics is full of it when it says social security is doomed). Privatizing our military has proven to be the nail in the coffin for the idea that "privatizing everything is the solution." It isn't.

As we have seen, giving more and more power to corporations that have no accountability and transparency (and who act like fascists) from the power of our government (which is supposed to come from us, the people) is not only disastrous; it is not the solution.