According to the Congressional Budget Office private military contractors in Iraq far outnumber the number of U.S. troops inside the country. About 20 percent of the 190,000 contract workers are U.S. citizens (working for firms such as Blackwater or KBR), while under 40 percent of contractors are citizens of the country where they work, mainly Iraq. The rest are mostly poor unskilled workers from places like India or the Philippines.
To date these private "non-uniformed" workers have cost U.S. taxpayers nearly $100 billion, which makes up roughly 20 percent of total U.S. spending for the five-year war. But the real cost of these private contract workers lies in how their presence has "helped the Pentagon hold down the number of military personnel sent to Iraq and avoid public discussion of a draft."
Put another way, another casualty of war has been the democratic impulse in America.
- Mark
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