Thursday, March 22, 2012

Living in Texas, most of us don't have an issue with our neighbor to the south. I feel that most have just accepted the way cultures spread through geographic locations and have decided to put our focus elsewhere rather than get pulled into another Border Security debate, but it seems that the rules change when violence becomes an issue. As you may know, we here in texas (especially in border towns) have seen an increase in violence tied to drug cartels. According to Off the Kuff, outsourcing border security to the private sector may not be the best choice.
With millions of Federal dollars pouring into border states to promote "border security" after 9/11, I can see the concern author Charles Kuffner presents. He brings up in his blog that so much money coming to the state of Texas should be allocated by the state of Texas and not outsourced to a private organization regarding security. The company that the money went to was ALIS which was founded by Gen. John Abrams, who was a Military Analyst in 2002 during the invasion of Iraq. The money went to the organization to develop a "public and media outreach campaign" (Kuffner)  to raise border awareness. Kuffner presents the idea that if selling the war is this Generals game, and he does it well, he will undoubtedly be able to score more contracts with the success of his campaign.
(Gen. John Abrams)
The author has been writing for years and clearly has an internet following. The intended audience for the majority of his blogs are definitely Democrats, yet in his article, other than contextually categorizing Gen. Abrams as a war monger, the article is written quite fairly, and he does point out good points. It's nothing but logical to assume that a private security contractor is going to aim to score more contracts while on the job, but if it has to be done through "misinformation" through a wide spread public and media campaign then maybe they aren't the best boys for the job. Just remember that there are some things that the private sector handles better than government.

The locks on my doors are made by Brink, not the Federal Government, but then again my locks don't lie to stay on my door...