Private contractors have become an essential element for the U.S. war machine. Tens of thousands have been employed at any given time in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of them are also "trigger pullers who have killed many innocent civilians. The use of private contractors has allowed U.S. officials to hold down the number of U.S. troops deployed and somewhat deflected public anger at the size of U.S. military deployments. It has also drained billions from the U.S. taxpayers into the coffers of politically connected contractors such as Blackwater and Halliburton.
According to an August 13th Congressional Research Service report, "As of March 2009, there were 68,197 DOD contractors in Afghanistan, compared to 52,300 uniformed personnel. Contractors made up 57% of DOD's workforce in Afghanistan. This apparently represented the highest recorded percentage of contractors used by DOD in any conflict in the history of the United States. (See www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R40764.pdf)
Will this replacement strategy lessen the need for more U.S. troops? Not likely! According to the Times story, "The changes will not offset the potential need for additional troops in the future, but could reduce the size of any request from Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. and allied commander, [Pentagon] officials said.
Two DOD officials told the Times that they estimated the total of support troops that could be replaced by combat forces could be between 6,000 to 14,000 troops. Army Colonel Wayne Shanks, spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, told the Times, "We have asked all commands to take a hard look to reduce redundancy, eliminate any excess and generally look for efficiencies in all our structures." He referred to this as "streamlining.
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