Monday, August 24, 2009
(graphic: Rebel Reports)
In the early months of his administration, President Barack Obama criticized the reliance on private contractors to help fight America’s war in Iraq, saying “too much money has been paid out for services that were never performed, buildings that were never completed, companies that skimmed off the top.” And yet civilian workers who do everything from guarding convoys to washing soldiers’ clothes are flooding into Afghanistan and outnumbering the total of American military personnel.
As of June 30, military contractors in Afghanistan numbered almost 74,000, compared to the approximately 58,000 U.S. soldiers present in the country. Even as the military force expands to the planned 68,000 by December, contractors will continue to be the larger of the two groups. A Pentagon official explained that the U.S. has had to rush contractors to Afghanistan to set up the support operation needed for newly arriving troops.
“Because of the surge, we’re trying to get ahead of the troops,” Gary Motsek, Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Program Support, told The Wall Street Journal. “So we’re pushing contractors in place, doing it as fast as we can, and trying to be responsible about it.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Afghanistan Contractors Outnumber Troops (by August Cole, Wall Street Journal)
At What Cost?: Contingency Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan (Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan)
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