Last week, a federal judge dismissed charges against the five Blackwater guards accused of the 2007 killing of seventeen Iraqi civilians in Baghdad.  The Iraqi government says it will pursue its own charges, but the episode brings renewed attention to the US government's controversial use of private contractors. Allison Stanger says the 2007 tragedy was not an isolated event, but rather the tip of the iceberg.

Stanger's new book, One Nation Under Contract explores the outsourcing of American power, a practice she says we'll need to perfect--because it's not going anywhere.

“While the American people's attention was focused elsewhere," Stanger writes, "private companies have become a permanent feature of what used to be called governance.”

So how do we get privitization right? Leave your questions and comments below.