The pitfalls of privatising war

Rather than shaming private corporations for their profit motive, we should ensure that there are legal safeguards and scrutiny to ensure that abuses such as those at Abu Ghraib do not occur in the first place.

In the rush to condemn companies for their involvement in war spoils, more attention needs to be directed towards what is happening locally. This is important following a  recent report that claimed funding cuts to the National Audit Office could threaten its ability to do its job.

"It would be somewhat ironic that, at the same time as we are being asked to do more work, for example, in relation to defence, we would have to cut a longstanding audit program that has been continually endorsed," said the letter from the Auditor quoted in The Australian.

Too much of the anti-war critique is driven by personality politics, where the US administration's bogeymen become the target of ridicule; or tired criticism of the economics of war. More important, in this era of late-night flights of unnamed suspects to unknown locations, is scrutiny of contractors and companies outside the rule of law.