I had never heard of State Rep. Chirs Hurst, Democrat from Enumclaw, until this morning, when I ran across an opinion piece he wrote in the News Tribune.  Not too surprsing, since I am not one of his constituents, and from glancing at his bio, he seems to be a pretty solid guy - by which I mean I doubt someone with his background would be prone to making silly airhead statements, like so many of his party bretheren do.

His piece in the News Tribune did not disappoint.  In fact, I felt compelled to post this, and state is public, for all to see, that I AGREE with him.

Using high-paid mercenaries insults American troops

How would you feel if you showed up to work and your boss hired someone who was paid 10 times your salary to do similar work? Then the next day you found that your new co-worker started killing customers, and the rules for you and him were different. He just gets sent home.

This is the very question many of our soldiers are asking as it relates to contracting out military functions to firms like Blackwater USA.

I have wondered about the massive number of mercenaries employed in this conflict.  I am not opposed to the use of Mercenaries, or Private Security Firms, or whatever euphmism they might prefer.  I think that there is a time and a place for employing such forces, when the use of a nations military is not appropriate, or politically possible, to accomplish a necessary goal.

What I AM opposed to is the use of these forces in the same theater of operations, doing fundamentally the same jobs, as our active duty forces.  Indeed, as Rep. Hurst points out, employing these mercenary forces cheapens the sacrifice of our professional military, and demeans them.

Looking at human history and the associated military conflicts, mercenaries and privateers are nothing new. However, from a historical perspective, it should also be noted that there is a direct correlation between the use of mercenaries and the decline of a civilization.

Historically (Wikepedia has a nice piece on this), mercenaries have been employed for numerous reasons.  Since in most ancient cultures, the vast majority of citizens were farmers, and a professional military was an expensive luxury, Mercenaries formed a sizable percentage of the armies of Pharoah, Xerxes, and most other rulers, when needed.  Mercenaries have existed in most cultures and countries, in one form or another. 

In our own history, the Hessian soliders that George Washington defeated at Trenton NJ (after crossing the Delware), were Mercenaries, in the service of England.  The Continental Congress, with only 31 ships, issued Letters of Marque to Privateers, authorizing them to attack British shipping.  Indeed, to this day,  Article 1 of the United States Constitution lists issuing letters of marque and reprisal in Section 8 as one of the enumerated powers of Congress.

The use of private “soldiers” in combat zones degrades the image and morale of our troops. Using our hard-earned tax dollars to pay them is an insult and slap in the face to those serving in our military who took an oath to defend our constitutional freedoms.

This is not a desperate war of national defense - it is a war to liberate a people.  There is no excuse for the use of Mercenaries in these circumstances.  If the American people are not willing to shoulder the burden to do what needs to be done, then the use of Mercenaries not only demeans our soldiers, but their mission as well.  And it is an indictment of our people, that we are comfortable with the suffering of others, just as long as we have our HD TV, and the newest IPod, and get to play WoW or the newest versin of Halo.

It is morally imperative that we stop using mercenaries and only use military personnel who have actually taken an oath to defend our Constitution. Furthermore, no contractor of any kind should be paid more than an American soldier serving in combat.

Supporting our troops begins with not demeaning them. They shouldn’t be forced to work alongside mercenaries and be insulted by the wages paid to these people who have no sworn allegiance or moral obligation, as our soldiers do.

Indeed, I support universal conscription for all support functions of the Military (and go ahead and rool in the Peace Corps and Public Health Service, if you like).  No one appreciates something that they haven’t worked for.  And while Freedom isn’t Free, far too many of our fellows get a free ride, due to the blood, sweat, and tears of those who hear the call, and serve not only the nation, but their brothers and sisters in other lands as well.

  State Rep. Chris Hurst, D-Enumclaw, has a son serving his third Army deployment in Iraq; a nephew was killed there.

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