Yes, we are f-ing nuts

Ted Koppel: Time for U.S. to Form an "Army of Mercenaries"?:

"NEW YORK Little known to the American public, there are some 50,000 private contractors in Iraq, providing support for the U.S. military, among other activities. So why not go all the way, hints Ted Koppel in a New York Times op-ed on Monday, and form a real 'mercenary army'?

Such a move involving what he calls 'latter-day Hessians' would represent, he writes, 'the inevitable response of a market economy to a host of seemingly intractable public policy and security problems.'

The issue is raised by our 'over-extended military' and inability of the United Nations to form adequate peace forces. Meanwhile, Americans business interests grow ever more active abroad in dangerous spots.

'Just as the all-volunteer military relieved the government of much of the political pressure that had accompanied the draft, so a rent-a-force, harnessing the privilege of every putative warrior to hire himself out for more than he could ever make in the direct service of Uncle Sam, might relieve us of an array of current political pressures,' Koppel explains, tongue possibly in cheek. "