The mechanism of sequestration has and will reduce the country’s ability to efficiently manage the Army’s personnel requirements. As the Army reduces its personnel they should look at contractor levels and adjust them accordingly. The Army should reduce their reliance on contractor support personnel and increase the size of the Military to the appropriate personnel levels so that it can conduct and perform all of its missions. The increase in contractor numbers, though logical should not have occurred at the expense of the Military service member.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, the use of contractors reached a level unprecedented in U.S. Military operations. During these campaigns the United States deployed one hundred and seventy five thousand troops and two hundred and seven thousand contractors to both of the war zones. Contractors represented fifty percent of the Department of Defense (DOD) workforce in Iraq and fifty nine percent of the workforce in Afghanistan. These numbers are astronomical and tell us that the Military’s numbers could be increased to some degree, even if not on a one for one basis. These numbers also show a pattern of spending that is out of control and
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As contractor’s serve within the war zones, they create several problems that the Military has not been able to overcome. First, the government does not control the quality of the personnel that the contractor hires. Secondly, the Army does not provide an officer or noncommissioned officer for each construction project, so they do not know about, their daily interactions with the local population or what types of projects they are working on. Finally, the population holds the government responsible for everything that the contractor does or does not do. By increasing the size of the Military, commanders could a lot the right number of Soldiers and personnel to complete the job
The United States Army has been a leader in military prowess on the world stage since its inception in 1775, and with such a record, it is reasonably assumed that there must be solid foundation within the organization working to maintain the high level of performance. The Noncommissioned Officer Corps is one institution within the Army that serves as a large portion of this foundation that makes it the fighting force that it has always been, and the noncommissioned officers have been an integral piece since the very inception of the Army. The Prussian General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, organizer of the Noncommissioned Officer Corps, encapsulated this idea when he coined the noncommissioned officer (NCO) as the backbone of the Army. (Arms, 1991) In an Army that is continuously adjusting to world around it while maintaining its status as the military leader to all other nations, the Noncommissioned Officer Corps has always provided the platform for continuity through a growing rank system based on its original core, an evolving training program to develop effective leaders, and a creed that moves us forward while remembering the rich history of the corps that came before us.
Denise Grady’s (2006) article sound a strong wake up call for the American government and for the American public to re-evaluate their guiding principles towards war in Iraq and the continued presence of the American soldiers in the Iraqi soil. Grady delineated the enormous damages the war had costs in not only monetary terms but also the future of thousands of promising young and talented men and women sent in the Iraq War; that had no clear benefits to them or the American people.
A military officer must manage pieces of one of the largest organizations in the United States government - an organization that accounts for the third largest piece of the American budget and is comprised of 1.3 million active sailors, soldiers, airmen, and marines, many of whom are tasked with being deployable to any location within 48 hours. This is only possible through concise, professional communication on the part of every service member, especially
middle of paper ... ... Works Cited Pbs.com, (n.d.) -. Frontline, Contractors, High Risk Contracting Business, Private Warrior. Retrieved November 7, 2013 from http://www.pbs.com. Web.archive.org.
Magdoff, F., & Magdoff, H. (2004). Disposable workers: Today's reserve army of labor. Monthly Review, 55(11), 18-35. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/docview/213209994?accountid=14543
In the post Afghanistan period, the Army will focus on regaining readiness to support the full range of combat operations and would be a key part of any large scale offensive or security requirement. A rebalance within the active and reserve components will achieve significant cost savings by placing a large percentage of the forces only necessary for extended ground campaigns in the reserves. The Army is essential to any large-scale force projection operation and functions as an integrated force with partners and allies
First off, in the survey were the discipline is very low and workers are usually lazy and don 't want to do their jobs that are required of them. In the army we are all very highly motivated as soldiers we will always complete our task and do our daily duties that are required of us as soldiers. Civilian workers don 't live by the Army values like a soldiers do so they often lack the motivation to get their job done right. Civilian workers are not held to the same standard as us soldiers because nobody counts on them to protect their freedom, that 's why as soldiers we have to be highly motivated at all times no matter what life throws at
Forsling, C. (2014, September 9 ). Task and purpose . Retrieved November 16, 2017, from Task and purpose : http://taskandpurpose.com/real-problem-military-salaries-compensation/
To completely do away with PMSCs would be catastrophic to United States military personal because of the extensive logistical and support services they provide. US troops are stretched thin in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the reluctance of congress to send more troops forces thousands of PMSC contractors to fill the holes. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were a new landmark in the role of PMSCs in warfare, with 54% of the troops on the ground being private contractors hired by the Department of Defense and 46% being uniformed soldiers (Oliver). According to George Seagle, Director of Security for the Government and Infrastructure Division of Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), since 2003 KBR (a PMSC) has “served more than 490 million meals, transported more than 675 million gallons of fuel, delivered more than 220 million pounds of mail, and washed more than 30 million bundles of laundry.” Furthermore they often construct infrastructure such as housing and mess halls to feed troops. However, many times they are involved directly in conflict, designated as bodyguards, convoys, or trainers.
This imposes problems on the military and even on the government. One article states that, “Reduced budgets and the threat of sequestration create a sense of uneasiness in the ranks, and those fears are fueled by politicians willing to shut down the federal government rather than compromise.” (Army Magazine) This is because with the increase of budget cuts they start to cause problems for the ones who are working and this creates lost jobs in the military. No one wants to lose their job not even the ones that have put forth a great amount of time and effort in the military. For the ones that have been in the military for a long period of time this can actually have negative effects on their life style and even cause problems when returning
Robert Greenwald’s documentary film, Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteer, highlights how the private military contractors (PMCs) make the profit out of the Iraq War, and visualizes how the motive of profit-oriented PMCs has a negative impact on U.S. image. The film shows interviews of former PMCs employees and their families, Iraqi civilians, U.S. military staff, and more. The question has raised that how the U.S. government solve such tragedy and at the same time to fulfill its needy of manpower in Iraq. Accountability is not the only significant opportunity cost of U.S. government deploying PMCs to Iraq, but also losing oligopoly leverage of traditional military in the labor market of the business of
Stone, Peter H. "Iraq Contractors on Defense." National Journal 39.9 (2007): 76-77. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 25 Jan. 2011.
Threats to the implementation of private military companies are public opinion and lack of budget for military spending. The challenge of public opinion can be founded in the way in which private military contractors are portrayed in the media and the high profile criminal investigations that have happened in the United States concerning the actions of a small minority of contractors. Similar to the current image of the Canadian Armed Forces, the actions of a small number of members can significantly impact the overall public opinion of a group. Even though the majority of military contractors have not been charged or found guilty of any crime, events such as the Nisur Square shooting will be used to weaken the argument for private
In the article How Much Does It Cost to Liberate a Country? Tom Engelhardt explores some of the uses of taxpayer money in the post-war Middle East, specifically Iraq and Afghanistan. There have been many projects to repair local infrastructure that have cost significantly more than they should and have been unsuccessful in helping these countries. One example is a “$75 million dollar police academy” that was said to be critical to making the handoff of security from the US to Iraq successful. The building ended up being so poorly built that it was a “health hazard” (Engelhardt). On slightly less systematic scale during the war, American soldiers siphoned off $15 million dollars of fuel imported to Afghanistan to run machines and sold it to locals (Engelhardt). In the modern era “’reconstruction’ and ‘war’ have really been euphemisms for […] a massive system of corruption” (Engelhardt). The question I have about these after reading this article is similar to the one I have at the end of Keller’s speech: what can the American people realistically do about this? How do you get a population to question the sacred place our military has in society enough to realize that their work is exploited? Once again the number of people that would be needed to create the amount of pressure to actually make a change seems
National defense being another example where the role of government is indispensable, because people do not pay for each unit the...