Centerfield

Why Privatized Military. Private Police, and Plans For Iraq All Failed

All these have failed for the same reason.

Consider the fall of Republican Rome. In case you hadn't read about its fall, well, they did, to the biggest private provider of physical force, one Julius Caesar. His army was much bigger than the state's. And that was the end of even the limited freedoms and innovation of that state. In fact, that was really its third fall to such private providers. The Caesars just solidified their advantages at the head of Empire. That was clearly a fundamental bug in their constitution.

To generalize a bit, any state with a weak or nonexistent public army must be vulnerable to blackmail and takeover from whomever commands the biggest force in the state. Roman history shows you can't count on honesty forever. Especially since power and the lust for power both breed corruption.

What happens if you have no internal security / police force? As it happens, also with Republican Rome as the example? Well, it's much the same - vulnerability of citizens to the biggest force in their regions. Most citizens are vulerable to all kinds of roguery and especially gangs. Only the wealthy were secure in Rome. The consequences to the State aren't as bad, but it means only the rich and their friends had the kind of security we take for granted. Others were vulnerable to gangsters, rich people they'd offended. business and political rivals, etc. Non-rich Romans had no real way to political power. We'd have had no Lincoln with that kind of limitation. Starting a business would require lots of ongoing either bribery or security overhead.

Until Petraeus came in, Iraq was another example,, because their police force hadn't been gotten in shape yet. Huge and increasing amounts of turf were ruled by gangs, with spiraling death and rape rates, high bribe overhead, and increasing security uncertainty. Emigration rates were consequently spiraling as well.

The need for providing internal security following invasions is hardly a military novelty, going back thousands of years. I've been inclined to wonder how Wolfowitz and others who abused their positions to punish generals inclined to mention that detail came by that idea.

Whadda YOU think?