Inherently Governmental

With Blackwater kicked out of Iraq and no longer permitted to provide State Department security, the government is looking for another contractor to take Blackwater's place. I'm sure someone better versed in Iraq security than I am can explain why the decision was made not to have government employees do that work. But for me, it raises an important question: is this inherently governmental work?

The "inherently governmental" tag is usually applied to jobs considered so important that they need to be insulated from the profit motive and cost-benefit tradeoffs. But I wonder if the definition should be expanded to include work the government absolutely needs done, and that it's not demonstrably clear the private sector can do better. I'm not an anti-contracting absolutist. There are some things that government needs done that it probably shouldn't have to set up on a permanent basis itself. It's certainly not clear from Blackwater's experience in Iraq that providing security is one of those things.

Update: Rob Brodsky has some good thoughts on this subject here.