http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125971465513072063.html
This is definitely not your Daddy's war. I can't help but wonder how the Vets of WWI and WWII or the Korean war or even Vietnam actually think about paid contractors.
I mean crap who did their laundry, rumor has it they actually did it themselves. Not like today where a paid contractor does it for them. I often wonder now how they could have managed transportation and base security all on their own. The job just must have been overwhelming.
The question is ladies and gentleman, who really has the most to gain from this contract arrangements? And how much does Congress gain from the deal, whether through
stock price enhancement or political contributions.
Even before the Obama administration decided to send tens of thousands of additional U.S. forces to Afghanistan, battlefield contractors there had seen a surge of their own.
Contractors already outnumber U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and their numbers have been rising all year, as the Obama administration increases troop levels. Defense Department officials want U.S. troops focused on combating insurgents, not on the nuts and bolts of sustaining what will be the largest fighting force the Pentagon has sent to the nation.
The Defense Department's latest census shows that the number of contractors increased about 40% between the end of June and the end of September, for a total of 104,101. That compares with 113,731 in Iraq, down 5% in the same period, as the U.S. seeks to reduce the number of contractors there. Most of the contractors in Afghanistan are locals, accounting for 78,430 of the total.
A Defense Department official said contractors in Afghanistan and Iraq "will continue to provide a wide range of tasks essential for operations including maintenance, construction, transportation, security and base support
