The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is taking up the Blackwater scandal today. You can watch the hearing on their website. Much of the discussion has been about about accountability, standards and efficiency. A new angle, being developed in this hearing, is that private contractors like Blackwater aren't effective in the sense that they harm, rather than help, military counterinsurgency campaigns. When contractors are running amok, it's harder to win hearts and minds. P.W. Singer of the Brookings Institution just recently a paper on this issue. Definitely worth a read. In a way, it's the same problem with privatizing IRS tax collection. By and large, IRS relies on people paying taxes voluntarily. Letting private companies make exorbitant profits and use potentially abusive tactics while collecting taxes just makes it more likely that people won't pay their taxes voluntarily. IRS may lose the "hearts and minds" that are so critical to it being an effective agency. Not all contracting erodes support for government, because some of it is quite necessary and effective. But inappropriate privatization has deep political consequences. It builds on the public attitude that government is ineffective, and that it doesn't primarily serve the public interest. When contractors misbehave, it's government that's often left holding the bag and public life that suffers. Singer's paper makes a similar point: Weakened American efforts in the "war of ideas" both inside Iraq and beyond. As one Iraqi government official explained even before the recent shootings. "They are part of the reason for all the hatred that is directed at Americans, because people don't know them as Blackwater, they know them only as Americans. They are planting hatred, because of these irresponsible acts." It's too easy for the public to see contractor mishaps as solely governmental failure. And unfortunately, that may partially account for the low opinion the public has about government today.