dr. stanger is talking about, the kinds of things that dr. avant is talking about, to lay out the considerations and then make that judgment. >> so you think it should be somebody back at headquarters? >> i think it should be somebody back at headquarts. >> so there's a commandern the field out there in helmand province and he or she has taken something over and now rethe want to have protection, they have convoys going back and forth. they've got to make a pretty quick decision. that going to throw through 26 million layers? >> no, but presumably, if you're getting private security guards, you have to go through a process of acquiring them. >> and you have to have some sort of contracting effort to bring them on board. having those rules in place to bring them on board makes sense. >> so you want some rules. >> i'm suggesting there should be some rules. >> okay. dr. stanger. >> article i section viii of the united states congress allows issuance of letters of mark. none have been issued to date. so congress has implicitly endorsed our curre

dr. stanger. >> thank you. it is an honor and privilege to be invited to share thoughts with you here today. i've submitted a longer statement for the record and will use my five minutes here to summarize the key points of its two major arguments. first, to the question posed by this hearing's title, armed security contractors have been performing in-hair rently governmental functions in iraq and afghanistan since even milton friedman's minimalist definition of the basic functions of government renders that verdict. second, congress should ban the use of armed contractors for moving security in combat zones and instead use direct hire employees. if the u.s. government is going to engage actively in countries where the lives of its personnel are at high risk, we will need to build up our in-house capacity to staff those missions appropriately. as i have argued elsewhere, it makes good sense for the government to harness the energy, efficiency and creativity of the private secretary nor as many ways as possible u

dr. stanger? >> i think that there was an attempt to learn the lessons of iraq in afghanistan and to hire local nationals. >> right. >> as uch much as possible. i think we ed to reflect on what jobs we are hing them to do if most of them are -- >> we are hiring them to guard our troops. >> we're hiring local nationa to guard our troops? >> local nationals afghanistan or third country nationals in iraq. the point being that they are privatized so just respond to that. >> regarding a camp? >> they are providing forced protections and providing our forces the security so that they can operate at a base. >> i think because of static it is permissible. >> that is where i think your bright line does help and i commend you for drawing that bright line. >> at the risk of going to the end of the spectrum that the chairman put me at earlier, having lived in this neighborhood for 30 years, i doeptd thi don't think it is about whether they are public or private. i think we have to look at the system that is d