OK, I'll do my best here. Obviously, these are my opinions and not official answers. 1. It's not only private security firms; the military uses private contr

OK, I'll do my best here. Obviously, these are my opinions and not official answers. 1. It's not only private security firms; the military uses private contractors for all sorts of tasks and they are subject to just as much administrative overhead. That said, the ending of major operations in Iraq and Afghanistan has led to a significant downsizing of the military. During the height of the Iraq surge (2007), gates at bases back home were all manned by private security because the Military Police were all deployed downrange. Same thing with dining facilities and a million other support functions. Now that we're downsizing, we've pulled our troops back home and Soldiers are once again serving our food, guarding our gates and fixing our vehicles. This is a Good Thing, in my opinion. 2. I don't think so. From a civilian's perspective, that number may seem huge. Just how many people do you need firing guns, anyway, right? The truth is that a huge percentage of those forces work in support functions: repairing equipment, delivering food and fuel, maintaining communications systems, etc. For every door kicker, there's at least a few (if not dozens of???) Soldiers who support him. The nature of global threats continue to evolve but the importance of deterrence remains the same. For better or for worse, this country has amazing resources and if we didn't protect it, another bully on the block is going to make a grab for it. 3. If only that quote solved it for us. Sadly, we've moved far beyond the kinetic Army of Patton's day into a zero-defect organization where any problem is automatically deemed unacceptable and must be fixed.