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TechnoratiObama Has 250,000 'Contractors' in Iraq and Afghan Wars, Increases Number of Mercenaries
Newly released Pentagon statistics show that in both Iraq and Afghanistan the number of armed contractors is rising. The DoD says it sees “similar dependence on contractors in future.”
A couple of years ago, Blackwater executive Joseph Schmitz seemed to see a silver lining for mercenary companies with the prospect of US forces being withdrawn or reduced in Iraq. "There is a scenario where we could as a government, the United States, could pull back the military footprint," Schmitz said. "And there would then be more of a need for private contractors to go in."
When it comes to armed contractors, it seems that Schmitz was right.
According to new statistics released by the Pentagon, with Barack Obama as commander in chief, there has been a 23% increase in the number of "Private Security Contractors" working for the Department of Defense in Iraq in the second quarter of 2009 and a 29% increase in Afghanistan, which "correlates to the build up of forces" in the country. These numbers relate explicitly to DoD security contractors. Companies like Blackwater and its successor Triple Canopy work on State Department contracts and it is unclear if these contractors are included in the over-all statistics. This means, the number of individual "security" contractors could be quite higher, as could the scope of their expansion.
Overall, contractors (armed and unarmed) now make up approximately 50% of the "total force in Centcom AOR [Area of Responsibility]." This means there are a whopping 242,657 contractors working on these two US wars. These statistics come from two reports just released by Gary J. Motsek, the Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Program Support): "Contractor Support of U.S. Operations in USCENTCOM AOR, IRAQ, and Afghanistan and "Operational Contract Support, ‘State of the Union.'"
"We expect similar dependence on contractors in future contingency operations," according to the contractor "State of the Union." It notes that the deployment size of both military personnel and DoD civilians are "fixed by law," but points out that the number of contractors is "size unfixed," meaning there is virtually no limit (other than funds) to the number of contractors that can be deployed in the war zone.
At present there are 132,610 in Iraq and 68,197 in Afghanistan. The report notes that while the deployment of security contractors in Iraq is increasing, there was an 11% decrease in overall contractors in Iraq from the first quarter of 2009 due to the "ongoing efforts to reduce the contractor footprint in Iraq."
Both Pentagon reports can be downloaded here.
9 Comments so far
Show AllI'm 100% against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and occupation and I fully support any and every peaceful means to remove our soldiers and our dollars from supporting further operations inside both countries.
Part of my commitment towords that goal is a commitment to accurately inform people regarding the reality of US activity in the region. If we aren't accurate and precise in our reporting, we open the door for criticism and we expose ourselves to supportable conclusions that we exagerate and inflate opinions rather than report true facts.
In reviewing the reports referenced in the article above, by looking at the figures and charts provided I can quickly and easily determine that the number of contract employees who are performing security servises is approximately 1/25th of the total number of contractors, or 10,000. That is the number of people who are performing duties that fall under the definition of mercenary.
Now don't get me wrong here: Even one is too many and is a grossly negligent and inhumane spending of my tax dollars (or to be more accurate, "of my grandchildrens tax dollars"). But I can tell you right now that if this story were to be referenced on some sort of mainstream program, it could be walked all over for clearly and obviously trying to give the casual reader the impression that there are 250,000 gun toting mercenaries running around under CENTCOM's umbrella. That's not even close to true.
We don't need to exaggerate folks. 10,000 armed mercenaries working with our tax money to maintain military dominance over a poor, beaten, and displaced population of civilians is a disgrace to our nation and to our humanity. Let's try to kep it real in the future so that rather than becoming talking points that support the false left/right paradigm, we can offer true and indisputable value that can be used to break through the lies and generate a sincere desire for lawful, moral, Constitutional government.
More of the Wobama employment plan.
Mercenaries by any other name are still more costly, not only in real money, but also in morality perception. Our fight is no longer about "justice", it is about "profit". When the attacks of 9-11 happened, the Arab world was nearly as horrified as the American public, except they could point out multiple reasons why such an attack might have happened. Most of the Moslem leaders came on line and explained that IF the United States retaliated in order to gain "justice" that the Moslem world would side with us. If however we sought "vengence", than we could expect to find many adversaries. When Bush/Cheney decided to expand the fight, (for profit and glory?), they paved the highway to bankruptcy, both monetarily and morally.
Yes, Obamacain fooled a bunch of people. Not me.
Now the deal seems to be Obama destabilizes Iran and Israel will not nuke it.
See the attacks being perpertrated currently by Sunni's from Baluchistan( most likely CIA funded).
Well, Obama stated clearly his refusal to rule out private contractors back in the day!
Ha. In reality, his master chessboard moves are dependent on the use of mercenaries.... just ask Big Zbig.
We can't keep this up. The empire is running out of money. Out, out of the Middle East quagmire--and save the country's soul and its money.
"The empire is running out of money...save the country's soul and its money."
1) This country has no money. We owe more than we are worth. Only our weapons keep us in business.
2) What soul? Is it the soul that enabled the extermination of the First Nations? Or the soul that bought and sold human-beings on the auction block and worked them to death, literally, with no compensation? Perhaps it's the soul that dropped "little boy" and "fat man" on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Is it the soul that sends hundreds of thousands of misfits onto the current anti-Muslim crusade with the aim to totally devastate the Muslim world?
Have you ever noticed that while we have our enlightened discussions about the "enhanced interrogation techniques, i.e. sexual torture of thousands of innocent people, we are not AT ALL mentioning the victims? This is where a soul would've been evident.
My daddy's newspaper and TV empire has robbed us of whatever soul we were trying to grow after a stupefyingly violent and soulless start as a nation.
STOP MEDIA CONTROL!
The USA has shown its "soul", time and again, and it appears to be one that should 'be damned' instead of being "saved"------as for all of that money----the USA has always been free with their money----most of it is 'stolen' anyway.
The USA will most likely be remembered by 'history' as THE negative example' in fact, in the future instead of cursing someone to 'hell'---people may say something like; 'I hope you rot in America" or "I hope all of your kids grow up to be like Americans' or words to that effect---The USA has certainly worked very hard for that distinction, if the 'founders' did not plan it----it has to be attributed to human nature and the worst that human nature can represent---- it can't possibly have been by accident.
But then again, if you think about it, the "Americas" were discovered by "accident" by a marginally intelligent ill informed, "Italian" mercenary---working for a corrupt and already dissolving Spanish monarchy- in an attempt to keep the British from dominating the world and it was all done---for MONEY. Now that is something that the historians will collaborate with the other scholars of the future who may be in the study of "Irony"---------
And after all this time, here America is, representing all of the worst that the past has exhibited, never seeming to learn from their own mistakes---much less those of others---and making it almost a "national policy" to repeat mistakes----especially the 'big, bad, dumb ones'----and---- more than once.
Their days are numbered in their present form, and without a speedy major set of reforms----numbered very few.
Good Luck America, you really need it.