Tyler Cowen attempts to minimize the difference between contractors and government in a piece in the Sunday New York Times. A few selected paragraphs from it: ALLEGATIONS of misbehavior by employees of Blackwater USA in the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqis have brought the military's use of private contractors into question. But whatever the possible sins of the Blackwater firm, the overall problem is not private contracting in itself; contractors do not set the tone but rather reflect the sins and virtues of their customers, namely their sponsoring governments... When private contractors are combined with government troops, the contractors usually can't do much better than the setting in which they are asked to perform... Note that a serious issue for Blackwater — the allegations about needless deaths of innocent civilians — has also been an issue for United States government forces from the beginning of the conflict. Cowen's assertions, as based in abstract, ideological and non-empirical thought as they are, will probably be convincing to far too many people. Somebody has to say no to this line of thinking. I imagine that Cowen's solution for all cases of contracting mishaps is probably to not have government do whatever it is it's doing, or to outsource more services, perhaps even the jobs that determine the "sins and virtues" of the great beast itself. The reality is that contracting, and maybe even the entire Iraq debacle, is a danger to government. It's just too hard for the public on its own to see the distinction between Blackwater and government. And Cowen's article shows that shameless privatization advocates have found a new opportunity to attack government. Who is brave enough to come to government's defense?