Iraq Contractors Hardly Noticed When Killed

   Did you know that thus far during our war with Iraq over 800 civilian contractors have been killed and over 3,300 hurt doing the work that our military would normally be doing? This is based on numbers that the Associated Press has gathered.         

                                       

           AP;

Exactly how many of these employees doing the Pentagon's work are Americans is uncertain. But the casualty figures make it clear that the Defense Department's count of more than 3,100 U.S. military dead does not tell the whole story.

Employees of defense contractors such as Halliburton, Blackwater and Wackenhut cook meals, do laundry, repair infrastruture, translate documents, analyze intelligence, guard prisoners, protect military convoys, deliver water in the heavily fortified Green Zone and stand sentry at buildings — often highly dangerous duties almost identical to those performed by many U.S. troops.

The U.S. has outsourced so many war and reconstruction duties that there are almost as many contractors (120,000) as U.S. troops (135,000) in the war zone.

   I have a hard time feeling sorry for many of these contractors who have been killed doing the military's work for them, especially those who worked for Blackwater. Some of these mercenaries are reported to make in excess of $1,000 per day while our troops, depending on rank, barely make near that amount. Let us not forget all of the perks that these people have coming to them.

The contractors are paid handsomely for the risks they take, with some making $100,000 or more per year, mostly tax-free — at least six times more than a new Army private, a rank likely to be driving a truck or doing some other unskilled work.

The difference in pay can create ill will between the contractors and U.S. troops.

"When they are side by side doing the same job, there is some resentment," said Rick Saccone, who worked as an intelligence contractor in Baghdad for a year.

   As well there should be alot of resentment from our troops who risk life and limb over a war that shouldn't be going on in the first, doing as they are ordered to do and having to fight next to some overpaid piece of shit who is just there for the big bucks.

While the Defense Department issues a press release whenever a soldier or Marine dies, the AP had to file a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain figures on pre-2006 civilian deaths and injuries from the Labor Department, which tracks workers' compensation claims.

By the end of 2006, the Labor Department had quietly recorded 769 deaths and 3,367 injuries serious enough to require four or more days off the job.

Contractor deaths are less costly politically, said Deborah Avant, a political science professor at George Washington University.

"Every time there's a new thing that the U.S. government wants the military to do and there's not enough military to do it, contractors are hired," she said. "When we see the 3,000 service member deaths, there's probably an additional 1,000 deaths we don't see."

   Less costly politically and they can do things the government cannot officially sanction, so ,there we have no accountability to anyone.

 

Technorati tags: Halliburton, Blackwater, Contractors, Iraq, Military, Bush Crime Family