Contractor Deaths Accelerating in Afghanistan as They Outnumber Soldiers

Source: The Raw Story

A recent Congressional Research Service analysis obtained by ProPublica looked at the number of civilian contractors killed in Afghanistan in recent months. It's not pretty.

Of the 289 civilians killed since the war began more than eight years ago, 100 have died in just the last six months. That's a reflection of both growing violence and the importance of the civilians flooding into the country along with troops in response to President Obama's decision to boost the American presence in Afghanistan.

The latest U.S. Department of Defense numbers show there are actually more civilian contractors on the ground in Afghanistan than there are soldiers. The Pentagon reported 107,292 U.S.-hired civilian workers in Afghanistan as of February 2010, when there were about 78,000 soldiers. This is apparently the first time that contractors have exceeded soldiers by such a large margin.

Using civilian contractors to haul food, prepare meals and act as bodyguards has kept the Pentagon's official casualty figures lower than they would have been in past conflicts, where contractors were not as heavily used.

Contractor casualties are, by and large, invisible to the public, disguising the full human cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are not reported in totals given by the government. If they were, the death toll in Afghanistan would have surpassed 1,000 -- 848 soldiers, 289 civilian contractors -- from 2001 to 2009, a milestone that has gone entirely unmarked.

more: http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0415/contractor-deaths-accelerating-afghanistan-outnumber-soldiers/

I'm coming up blank at the moment.

Afghanistan: The Endless For-Profit War

No War Contractor Left Behind

Who Needs Volunteers or a Draft When You Have $$$$?

:thumbsup:

I think they're still guarding the Green Zone. Go figure.

:puke:

are imported low wage slaves.
You may remember the stories out of Iraq how KBR and other major contractors were hiring
desperately poor people from the slums of 3rd world countries, shipping them to Iraq when the poor bastards thought they were going to Dubai, then the bosses would take their passports away, stick them
in labor camps with barbed wire, and sometimes not pay them at the end of the job.
Of course most of the money went into the business pockets, little into the slave labor.
Many complaints in Fla. of the same problem with 3rd world farm laborers.

Would not be surprised if dead peasant insurance was rampant, also.

They reap what they sow

These are not exclusively mercs, but all contractors are included.

They take a job, risking their lives for money. They are no different than a soldier in that regard. Many contractors are retired military. They can't find jobs in the US with the skill-set they have, so they go back into a war zone, for more pay.

I don't see those on the ground as much different than the military. My problem is the CEOs and the executives that are robbing our country, profiteering on war.