contractors

‘Strategic confusion’ in Afghanistan: Special Inspector General says ‘every agency experienced annual lobotomies’ for 20 years

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J Michael Waller / American Greatness / August 19, 2021. A new inspector general report eviscerates the entire 20-year U.S.-led reconstruction effort in Afghanistan, revealing a constant interagency rotation of “annual lobotomies,” ensuring that the same mistakes were repeated again and again.  The August 2021 Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) report shows failure … Read more

Private ships of war

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by J Michael Waller, Serviam, January 2, 2009. Privately owned warships are so deeply at the heart of American maritime tradition that a reference to them is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. With their own contract crews who rushed to the fight for independence during the American Revolution and in defense of the nation during … Read more

An officer and a businessman: Captain Parrott and his guns

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by J Michael Waller / Serviam / December 30, 2008. After a successful if rather uneventful career as a U.S. Army artillery officer, Capt. Robert Parker Parrott went into the private sector. That’s where his real contribution to American national defense began. Thanks to his West Point education and his 12 years as a commissioned officer, Parrott amassed … Read more

The contract flyers of World War I

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by J Michael Waller / Serviam / March-April 2008.* With war raging on the other side of the world, Charlie Meyers left his home in Brooklyn and headed for Canada’ Not to avoid a military draft, but to go and fight. The United States had not yet entered World War l, and Meyers, a young flier during … Read more

Accountability and private security contractors: Visibility is key to success

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by J Michael Waller / Serviam / November-December 2007, When a private contractor for the U.S. government abides with the letter of the law, but the law is so flawed that it doesn’t correspond with reality, whose fault is it? The contractor’s, of course. That’s the apparent reasoning of critics in Congress and the press who blame private … Read more