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This Year, Contractor Deaths Exceed Military Ones in Iraq and Afghanistan
More private contractors than soldiers were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent months, the first time in history that corporate casualties have outweighed military losses on America’s battlefields.
More than 250 civilians working under U.S. contracts died in the war zones between January and June 2010, according to a ProPublica analysis of the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Labor, which tracks contractor deaths. In the same period, 235 soldiers died, according to Pentagon figures.
This milestone in the privatization of modern U.S. warfare reflects both the drawdown in military forces in Iraq and the central role of contractors in providing logistics support to local armies and police forces, contracting and military experts said.
Steven Schooner, a professor of government contracting at George Washington University Law School, said that the contractor deaths show how the risks of war have increasingly been absorbed by the private sector. Private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan provide fuel, food and protective services to U.S. outposts — jobs once performed by soldiers.
“It’s extremely likely that a generation ago, each one of these contractors deaths would have been a military death,” Schooner said. “As troop deaths have fallen, contractor deaths have risen. It's not a pretty picture.”
Schooner, who conducted a recent study of contractor fatalities published in Service Contractor (PDF), an industry newsletter, said contractors now make up more than 25 percent of total deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan — a proportion that has grown steadily throughout the conflicts. Official figures show that 5,531 troops and 2,008 civilian contract workers have died in Iraq and Afghanistan between the beginning of hostilities in 2001 and June 2010.
Many working under U.S. contracts are local civilians, often working as translators for troops, or are hired from third world countries to do basic labor, such as cleaning kitchens and toilets.
Previous ProPublica stories have noted that companies employing such workers often fail to report their deaths and injuries to the Labor Department, as required by law. Government figures likely understate the total number civilian contractor deaths.
Click to see the number of U.S. government private contract worker deaths and injuries from Sept. 1, 2001 through June 30, 2010.
The rising fatalities have received little public attention, concealing the full human cost of the war, Schooner said. When President Obama spoke of troop deaths in Afghanistan earlier this month, he made no mention of fatalities among the private workforce that feeds and fuels U.S. forces.
“I'm not accusing either the Bush or the Obama administration of intentionally deceiving the public,” Schooner said. “But when a president applauds a reduction in military deaths but fails to acknowledge the contractor personnel now dying in their place, someone isn't telling the whole story.”
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the most privatized in American military history. Today, there are 150,000 troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. As of March 2010, there were more than 200,000 private contractors, though that number is believed to have declined with the drawdown of U.S. forces.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced a plan last month to sharply reduce the number of contractors, saying the Pentagon has become overly dependent on private workers to carry out jobs once done by soldiers.
A recent Congressional Research Service report (PDF) found that the heavy use of contractors had exposed troops to supply shortfalls, wasted taxpayer money, and stirred anger among locals. In several high-profile incidents, heavily armed private security contractors have killed unarmed Iraqi and Afghan civilians.
“Some analysts believe that poor contract management has also played a role in abuses and crimes committed by certain contractors against local nationals, which may have undermined U.S. counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the report found.
Marcie Hascall Clark, an advocate for contract workers, said that contractor deaths and injuries reflected contractors’ importance in fighting the wars.
Labor Department figures show that more than 44,000 contractors have reported injuries since 2001, compared to about 40,000 U.S. troops. The figures are not entirely comparable, since contractor injuries include minor workplace injuries.
“I don’t think most contractors expect to be treated as nobly as our soldiers, but they don’t expect to be forgotten, either,” said Hascall Clark, who runs a group called American Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. “I think there should definitely be some recognition of what they do.”
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28 Comments so far
Show AllHessians of the world unite! Demand better working conditions. These people need a union. AFL CIO get out there an organize.
That's why they get the big bucks. Neither they nor "the troops" ought to be there in the first place.
are the American contractor injuries eligible for VA care afterwards? Do they get followup for, say, amputees or brain injury?
No
Miller sez: "Steven Schooner, a professor of government contracting at George Washington University Law School, said that the contractor deaths show how the risks of war have increasingly been absorbed by the private sector."
***
First of all, "professor of government contracting"??? WTF???
Secondly, the "private sector" has not absorbed any risk at all. The cost-plus contracts assure a steady stream of war profits to its shareholders.
Now, the ex-grunts and assorted brown people hired for work on the front lines may be at some risk, but the proles will continue to provide a steady stream of them, as well.
The article says that the contractors make up 25% of TOTAL deaths.....and what about the Iraqi and Afghanistan deaths? The US media folks and populace always fret heavily about the number of deaths of their own people, who illegally invaded these countries, and have not a sylable of compassion or emapathy for the murdered and tortured innocents of these countries who have been the victim's of the US military terrorism. The hubris of the American people is evidently causing their downfall...as it did with the Greeks, Romans, and other empires of the past!
No Miggy, that does not sound cold blooded at all. I feel the same way. You are right. They are murderers and are getting paid big bucks from us to murder innocent people for money. They do get what they deserve.
I see a bumper sticker on a car saying Their son is serving in..... I think, and I hope they get killed. I live by an AFB and see soldiers and want to spit or say something to them.
I understand econimically they may not have a choice. Or maybe some people really do have a love of country. But anyone with a brain has to know that what we are doing in those countries is illegal.
So is the person who is probably reading my comments. Illegal spying is illegal
JoeCool9
I certainly agree with your comments as well as the thought so risingdawn and Miggy. Contrast what you and the others have written with that of Marci Hascall Clark who, as the article points out, is an advocate for contract workers, and states, without a hint of irony, "I think there should be some recognition of what they do". Yes indeed there should be a recognition by the major media of what these trained killers do and that is that they, along with the members of the U.S. military, have been involved in the subjugation and unjustifiable slaughter of many innocent Afghans and Iraqis.
Here is another novel thought. The deaths of these mercenaries whom Ms. Clark wishes us to mourn were entirely preventable as no one forced these contractors to sign on with these companies and engage in war making profiteering. Unlike back in the day when I and hundreds of thousands of other poor bastards ended up being drafted and sent to a place called Vietnam, today a military draft has been abolished which means, to point out the obvious, that, incredibly if not stupidly, the ones who are now complaining about how their loved ones are suffering so much overseas [while always neglecting to mention the suffering that the local population has gone through at the expense of our fighting forces] seem to have forgotten that the members of their families actually VOLUNTEERED for their less than glorious misadventure overseas. But these people could be forgiven if they were to actually reach an epiphany which would finally reveal to them that they, as I and many others had been, were lied to by their government. When they would finally come to that realization they could and should join the antiwar movement in order to tell the American public how they too had been conned by their government. But unfortunately the vast majority of these mercenaries, just like those who are in the military, still continue to believe that they are fighting for some idiotic and noble cause. But as this article points out, the freedom fighters in Afghanistan and Iraq are not allowing their countries to be overrun by the less than benign mercenaries who are basically performing the same function as the U.S. military but getting paid far better than those who are working for Uncle Sam.
We always have a choice economically. True, especially if born poor and with a penis the military one is offered as a mass social organizing principle beginning at birth. Of course even more so now military enlistment is a political move for even richly economically familied. Getting back to the born with a penis, the visual cortex has been saturated by the All-American Warrior Hero archetype, and encouraged to be acted out by the mass social consciousness. Since their earliest days their kinesthetic's have been associated to the rumblings of fighter jet fly overs mixed with the orgastic hoo-ah's of 50,000 people; with The Grand Daddy Of Them All: The Stealth Bomber with it's seemingly cosmic rumble like something out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind -- and that's reinforced by their fantasy world played out with computer; some of the fantasy rubs off in boot camp...a lot more of it falls off when their boots hit the ground in the Middle East: but at that moment they are still the All-American Warrior Hero[Jimmy Swaggart goes orgastic when he opines over his Heroes having the opportunity to see Jesus come down from the sky over the battle field of Armageddon...: These are some pretty strong forces you're dealing with, you can try spitting on someone's shoes; I hung around briefly with some G-8 Activists who did the Guerilla Theatre tactic of faux vomiting pea or veggie mix soup(chunky style) on the G-8 Members shoes. I suppose in the least these can be seen as issuing a statement for the individual, thus not bottling up emotions in silence, but back to the strong forces: somehow the narrative has to be captured from those that have violated the founding principle of separation of church and state with the Military Industrialized Complex Warrior Myth(with the glowing staple character structures of both Enlightened Self Interest and American Exeptionalism exemplified by president Barack Obama[myths are not lies or falsehoods, saying that they are is the biggest lie and falsehood -- for they help set the direction of individuals and humanity's mental forces and ultimately physical actions). So spit if you're moved to do so...but hopefully it's with your sleeves rolled up and after a deep breath with sharp exhale, and you rub the spit between your palms to get your hands ready for when it's your turn to carry the ball again.
****
In regards to the contractors: you made an arrangement with a corporation -- corporations are not people(this is one part of why it's a cold blooded situation), in fact not only is it not cold blooded: corporations are non-blooded, so, of course it won't have as much loyalty that a dog, cat or horse could give you, but you can take your earnings from the corporation and buy yourself "a spouse" at the local dance hall, and contract a nice little parade from the Dollar Store; if you really want to join in with the hoo-ah with the 18 year old at the Rose Bowl...ya gotta join the Marines!...very strong force........the narrative.
I have to say I agree with you totally, Miggy. Iraqis and Afghans did not choose to be murdered in their own country, these people chose to go there to kill them - for being born and living there there. Very sorry to say: don't care about the fate of invaders.
Actually it is quite cold-blooded when you consider that many of the deaths have been translators, secretaries, truck drivers, and others NOT involved in any sort of weaponry. Those who jump to the conclusion that all they are talking about are Blackwater types show a distinct lack of curiosity and analytical ability ala George W. Bush.
... Without even reading a single line of the article text or the comments accompanying, let me go on record as being glad to hear that the characterless swine posing as global citizens are being killed in Iraq/Afghanistan. The more the better, and the sooner the better, as far as I am concerned.
Any fool for hire can take up weapons against strangers for a paycheck. Real men serve free of charge for causes bigger than their fake balls, causes which they certified in advance, being thinking beings and all...
Why don´t you just die as soon as possible, & make the world a better place? Do it now!
As an agnostic skeptic, I don't believe that the Bible is an expression of supernatural or spiritual authority beyond its merit as an ancient and enduring literary work.
Still, it contains lapidary truths that I accept as Gospel.
Matthew 26:52: Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
One step beyond hiring individual foreigners to support American troops in battle, is hiring foreigners to carry weapons for the U.S. Two steps beyond is hiring the Chinese government to fight our colonial wars for us. They have millions of throwaway citizens, especially political slaves who will do almost anything. Americans are realizing that our citizens are slightly more than millions of throwaways.
Slightly.
Another example of DOD and MSM framing:
They should be refered to as "mercenaries" and not "contractors".
These "contracters" are continually referred to as "Civilians".
These are NOT Civilians. They are mercenaries and "Illegal combatants"
250 foreign Civilians have been killed in Iraq.
250 foreign Mercenaries have been killed in Iraq.
"MY husband was a Civilian killed by terrorists while trying to help the people Of Iraq"
"My husband was a mercenary killed by "freedom fighters" in Iraq"
Certain statements evoke more empathy.
The ONLY Civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan are the Iraqis and Afghan people themselves that are not part of the Military. The rest are intruders trying to make a buck off the suffering and misery visited upon the Civilians of those countries by foreign Militaries.
These thuggish "contractors" make close to six figures, and they don't need a college degree, just a flag waving, colonist attitude.
In my parent's neighborhood, there are at least 2 of these "contractors" from Blackwater, who openly bragged about shootong, wounding, and killing Iraqis.Of course they said this nonchalantly over cheap American beer as the big screen 50 inch plasma TV dronned on during the superbowl.
Somehow these increased deaths of these hired gun, mercenary thugs doesn't surprise me. It's about like the Hessians getting killed back in 13 colonies rebellion against George III.
AD
The number of mercenaties killed and wounded should be reported right alongside the number of actual military personnel
"This Year, Contractor Deaths Exceed Military Ones in Iraq and Afghanistan"
The best news I've heard all day.
So, I have read the majority of the statements, the 'Comments' and I am disgusted.
The Audacity to revel in some one's death. That disgusts me, people here claim moral superiority and then dance joyfully around the bodies of people they have no ideas about.
First there are Contractors and then there are contractors. A military contractor does not necessarily carry a weapon, and most times are not allowed to do so. Yes there are mercs there, but contractors can be the cook, the barber, the laundry lady, or a Pakistani or Afghan truck driver.
Common Dreams my ass, if your common dream finds joy in the death of another i despise you.
So go to Afghanistan and cook up a pot of soup. Duck.
"This Year, Contractor Deaths Exceed Military Ones in Iraq and Afghanistan"
Awesome news.
Funny how almost everyone jumps to the conclusion that the contractors dying are Blackwater types. Even though the article states that it includes people like translators and kitchen workers, people don't seem to read. Checking the chart that accompanies the article shows that many of the deaths were with corporations that have nothing to do with armed action, but instead are construction outfits, engineering outfits, and similar people engaged in trying to reconstruct what the military destroyed. Then there are the NGO's like Doctors Without Borders and similar groups that are losing people.
If there were ever an Olympic competition for jumping to false conclusions, America would carry off the three medals with no one else even close.
So, supporting murderous invaders with workers doing tasks formerly done by soldiers is all right with you as long as they aren't pulling triggers.
I will grant you one thing, though, as if it was up to me to grant anything to anyone. There are lots of support people from dirt poor countries outside the US who have grown up in grinding poverty trying to better their lives by working for US Contractors, Inc., at 30 cents an hour at the end of the contracted to, subcontracted to, further subcontracted to, and subcontracted once again to, finally, the 30 cents an hour guy.
US taxpayers cough up a hundred bucks an hour (and, yes, this figure is pulled straigt out of my ass) for some poor illiterate shlub to get paid 30 cents an hour to do laundry with dirty filthy water for "the troops" and the mercenary murderers. Yes, I can symathize a bit with that guy, have a little empathy for that guy, because he or she is in a desperate situation -- do what he or she is doing or the whole family dies of starvation back in the third world country where he or she came from.
The contractors and the sub, sub, sub contractors, however, deserve a bullet to the throat.
see if St. Peter's got a contract for you, scum.