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Massive Private Contractors' Role In Iraq Documented By New Congressional Report
Today private military contractors supporting the U.S. occupation in Iraq far outnumber U.S. troops inside the country.
All together, these non-uniformed workers have cost nearly $100 billion, accounting for roughly 20 percent of the total U.S. budget for the five-year war.
That's according to the most comprehensive study to date (.pdf) of private contractors in Iraq, released today by the Congressional Budget Office.
The CBO estimates that more than 190,000 contractors were working on U.S.-funded contracts in the Iraq theater as of early 2008. This is somewhat higher than past estimates and far outnumbers the roughly 150,000 U.S. troops inside the country.
The report provides the first reliable breakdown of who these contractors are and where they come from.
Only about 20 percent are U.S. citizens, who work jobs such as armed security or logistical services for firms such as Blackwater or KBR.
Under 40 percent of contractors are citizens of the country where they work, mainly Iraq, some Kuwait and Jordan. (Surrounding countries such as Kuwait and others are considered part of the "Iraq theater" where logistical services essential to the occupation are provided.)
And the report for the first time estimates that about half are from other countries, mostly poor, unskilled workers from places like India or the Philippines These migrant workers are paid far less than Americans yet are critical to the day-to-day operations of the occupation.
The full cost -- in both money and lives -- related to these contractors has gone largely unreported. There are no reliable estimates on non-Americans who have been injured or died working for the U.S. military.
Working as bodyguards, engineers, translators, drivers, construction workers cooks, janitors and laundry operators, these workers have helped the Pentagon hold down the number of military personnel sent to Iraq and avoid public discussion of a draft.
The CBO study notes that U.S. dependence on contractors is radically higher than during prior conflicts. Contractors in Iraq are proportionally about 5 times higher than in Vietnam.
Unbelievable...
So, why not withdraw the troops?
Blackwater and other will cover their backs.
August 12, 2008 12:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Read the whole article. It is not 190,000 Black Water style mercenaries. The number includes cooks, janitors, translators, construction workers, and laundry operators.
Sheesh.
August 12, 2008 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's just great. A Neo-con army that answers only to Cheney, whose world view is only equaled by Auric Goldfinger.
August 12, 2008 12:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, I'm really afraid of Cheney's army of Filipino laundry operators. scaarryy!
Come on people. This is the 5th time I've written this: Read the whole damn article.
August 12, 2008 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dog help us when these gun-happy psychos come home.
August 12, 2008 1:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think the privitization of warfare was one of the big reasons for the Iraq War.
Does Obama have the stomach to reverse this expensive and corrupt practice?....I don't think so.
August 12, 2008 1:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is a good response to questions the McCain camp has raised about Obama's Pentagon-mirroring non-military nation building force. It's not an unrealistic suggestion after all, something of that scale already exists and in the eyes of the McCain camp and many others is successful.
I'd like to see this idea fleshed out a little more by each side because I don't see this line of attack being effective for McCain anymore, except to the extent that fighting growing government fits the assumed McCain jib nicely.
August 12, 2008 1:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I suggest that we dispatch Obi-Wan to investigate this secret Clone Army.
August 12, 2008 1:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wouldn't that be 190,000 unlawful combatants?
August 12, 2008 2:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Read the whole article. It is not 190,000 mercenaries. It includes janitors, cooks, laundry workers, and construction workers.
You would have known this if you had finished the article.
August 12, 2008 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
The math does not add up. the 100 billion figure sounds ridiculously low. These people are not working for minimum wage. Somebody---anybody---tell me I am wrong.
August 12, 2008 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Read the whole article. A lot of them are people from Kuwait, Iraq, and other local countries who are being paid local wages. Others are Filipinos.
Again, it's not the case that there are 190,000 Blackwater style mercenaries. We're talking about janitors and construction workers.
August 12, 2008 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't get your panties in a bunch. If you read even this report, you'll see that they are including:
Do we really want uniformed men and women doing laundry and construction?
Read the whole article, folks. It is not the case that there are 190,000 blackwater style mercenaries in Iraq.
August 12, 2008 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Boy. I almost wonder if Cheney didn't realize he could only keep U.S. troop levels up for his own duration in office. Maybe he and the PNAC cabal really intended all along to finance the endgame personally (meaning what they could funnell away from the treasury without oversight or accountability right into the waiting Treuhand accounts) so they could carry on long after "official" American participation ceased. It would otherwise be nearly impossible to wage a private war. Looks like it's sailing along now, though.
August 12, 2008 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, Reece, #'s of support personell are not detailed. All the same, let's say there are only 75,000 combatants in these figures. 10,000 - pick a number. It's still a crock. We wouldn't want a foreign mercenary cabal of this size doing business anywhere on the globe, now, would we?
August 12, 2008 2:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
We have been told by McCain, among others, that the problems in Iraq are because we sent too few people there to handle the job. Well, now we know we have had closer to 350,000 than to 150,000, and that number was closer to 400,000 during the "surge". That is about the number that Shinseki said would be needed.
I realize the 190,000 isn't all combat personnel, but in all other US military adventures, US military personnel did those non-combat jobs. So, Shinseki's estimate was based on the US military doing the job, not a mix of mercenaries and US military. My point is that we did use the big number of personnel that was known to be needed, and it still didn't work.
A secondary point is that one would be an idiot to suppose that the $100 billion, or whatever it was, that these mercenaries cost us, didn't nearly all go to poor Arab workers. Most of it went into the bank accounts of a few Repub donors. You can bet the bank on that.
And, yes, these are all unlawful combattants, just as Osama's limo driver was one. That fellow was not a combat soldier either. It's time to invade Cuba so we can expand GITMO enough to handle the whole 190,000 of them.
August 12, 2008 3:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
AS for the Non-Government Personnel doing the jobs soldiers did, we can thank the same person responsible for rendition, the original no-bid contracts to haliburton, and 9-11...
Yep, Clinton. And I can prove those, unlike the people that accuse buse of being the anti-Christ.
August 13, 2008 12:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's much easier today to begin wars (and keep them going) than it used to be simply because many more are paid folks. the demeanor of relatives and friends of returning veterans changed the attitude of the important folks who desire wars... The entire system was changed after that.
The powers at large are also learning to rely more upon foreign troops and support to also make it easier to wage war without the public getting too perturbed.
Sad... my belief is that unless it becomes more difficult, rather than easier, this nation is in for many more battles than in the past century.
One way to at least make it more difficult to do this is to mandate that Congress and Senate forfeit vacations and holidays during times when the troops are fighting. The importance of their luxuries and separation of the elite and the commoners might just sway enough of them to at least read the important reports before okaying wars...
Wishful thinking, isn't it... actually asking our elite leaders to actually give up their playtime while their countrymen are dying...
Too bad we don't demand this from any new Washingtonians (whether Reps or Dems) before electing them...
August 12, 2008 5:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, well, well...
Look at what we got here...
Another reporter with an agenda and a great effort to sucker the public.
What this reporter is not telling you is that the 190,000 includes cooks, truck drivers, etc. Not all of them are directly employed by the U.S. and the vast majority of them are not armed.
How many armed personnel are there? According to this guy's sources, there are ~30,000 (page 15) and only 30% work for the U.S.
This is not the most outrageous abuse of the first amendment I have seen, but it really is pathetic.
And he'll get away with it because most people are sheep that won't bother to read.
August 13, 2008 12:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
What a clever Kansas City shuffle. If contracting services account for 20% of war expenditures, that still leaves the remaining 80% to consider. To whom is it going and how is it being spent? As long as the focus remains on the "usurping contractors", no one has to answer questions about military spending in general or about the war itself.
Funny that a civilian with a gun is a blood-thirsty murderer but a soldier with a gun is a hero. Is it our guilty conscience that makes us regard the boys in camo as martyrs, since we, as a society, made the decision 5 years ago to ship them out to the Middle East - and allows us to wallow in contempt for the civilian that (gasp) made his own voluntary decision to support the war effort?
Nothing whatsoever against service members, just can't stand it when the media manipulates data to promote stereotypes against contractors. A few "bad egg" stories about them, and the whole 190,000 get labeled mercenaries. Ridiculous.
And thank you, Reece, for repeatedly pointing out that the vast majority of contractors work strictly in a support capacity and are not even allowed to carry weapons.
August 14, 2008 1:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
My instincts on this are starting to be borne out----the guy on c-span 13 hours ago has been shredded.
the 100 billion figure is low---and that is why the 20 percent figure is, too.
Go back to math class.
August 14, 2008 9:34 PM | Reply | Permalink