Coalition of the Billing
Figures released by the State and Defense department show that the number of private contractors in Iraq has exceeded the number of troops. More than 180,000 civilians are working in Iraq under U.S. contracts, which exceeds our surge level of 160,000 troops in Iraq.
Brookings Institution scholar Peter Singer wrote: “They illustrate better than anything that we went in without enough troops. This is not the coalition of the willing. It's the coalition of the billing.”
Those 180,000 civilians include at least 21,000 Americans, 43,000 foreign contractors and 118,000 Iraqis, who are employed in Iraq by our tax dollars. According to government officials private security contractors, who are hired to protect government officials and buildings were not fully counted in the survey.
Military experts have expressed concern over the numbers of armed contractors. William Nash, a retired Army general and reconstruction expert points out: “We don’t have control of all the coalition guns in Iraq. That’s dangerous for our country...The Pentagon is hiring guns. You can rationalize it all you want, but that’s obscene.”
The most controversial contractors are the mercenaries working for private security companies, such as Blackwater. They guard sensitive sites and provide protection to U.S. and Iraqi government officials and businessmen.
The companies with the largest number of employees are foreign firms in the Middle East that subcontract to KBR, the Houston-based oil services company, according to the Central Command database. KBR, once a subsidiary of Halliburton Co., provides logistics support to troops, the single largest contract in Iraq.
Critics worry that troops and their missions could be jeopardized if contractors, functioning outside the military's command and control, refuse to make deliveries of vital supplies under fire. In 2004, our forces were put on food rations when drivers balked at taking supplies into a combat zone.
Brookings Institution scholar Peter Singer wrote: “They illustrate better than anything that we went in without enough troops. This is not the coalition of the willing. It's the coalition of the billing.”
Those 180,000 civilians include at least 21,000 Americans, 43,000 foreign contractors and 118,000 Iraqis, who are employed in Iraq by our tax dollars. According to government officials private security contractors, who are hired to protect government officials and buildings were not fully counted in the survey.
Military experts have expressed concern over the numbers of armed contractors. William Nash, a retired Army general and reconstruction expert points out: “We don’t have control of all the coalition guns in Iraq. That’s dangerous for our country...The Pentagon is hiring guns. You can rationalize it all you want, but that’s obscene.”
The most controversial contractors are the mercenaries working for private security companies, such as Blackwater. They guard sensitive sites and provide protection to U.S. and Iraqi government officials and businessmen.
The companies with the largest number of employees are foreign firms in the Middle East that subcontract to KBR, the Houston-based oil services company, according to the Central Command database. KBR, once a subsidiary of Halliburton Co., provides logistics support to troops, the single largest contract in Iraq.
Critics worry that troops and their missions could be jeopardized if contractors, functioning outside the military's command and control, refuse to make deliveries of vital supplies under fire. In 2004, our forces were put on food rations when drivers balked at taking supplies into a combat zone.
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