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One Soldier’s Experience With One Nation Under Contract

We go to war because of the men on our left and right. Since 9/11, we should probably add to that the contractors in the rear providing us food, drinks and organizing basketball tournaments. Maybe we don’t fight for them, but we certainly couldn’t fight without them. This situation isn’t good or bad, it just is.

When I was in Afghanistan, my unit had to hire interpreters to talk to locals. They were contractors, though we didn’t think of them like that. In the Korangal, we struggled to keep them from going on leave, and never returning. Throughout our battalion, we struggled to staff enough of them. My platoon had two interpreters, and we still struggled to operate across our district.

At Bagram Air Field, I ate food made by KBR employees. In Kunar Province, my company hired locals to cook the food that had been flown in by contracted helicopters. And when our radios broke, the Army flew in a contractor to fix them.

http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/...act/?ref=world

Note: April 18, 2011, 11:12 am

Quote:

The numbers also dramatically show — and hopefully General Officers take notice — that contracting is multiplying. How many contractors are deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan? Don’t worry if you don’t know; the Pentagon doesn’t know for sure either. In 2007, the Pentagon thought it had 25,000 contractors working for it in Iraq. Turns out the number was closer to 180,000. How many people does the Pentagon contract as workers worldwide? 5.2 million as of 2005. As of 2007, the Pentagon stopped keeping track altogether.

WOW. This is really bad.

No wonder the defense budget is so high ... no one is trying to catch the dishonest contractors!

* I believe that "most" contractors are honest, but in this case, the dishonest ones have open season to make a killing.

Iraq was all about the $$$ and handouts to contractors. theres a reason this was the most expensive war per troop on the ground ever.