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More contractors than troops in Iraq?

Staggering, but not necessarily surprising! There are more contractors than US troops in Iraq. And the amazing cost of it all?

truthout.com has the details in a piece "Massive Private Contractors' Role in Iraq Documented by New Congressional Report":

"Today private military contractors supporting the U.S. occupation in Iraq far outnumber U.S. troops inside the country.

All together, these non-uniformed workers have cost nearly $100 billion, accounting for roughly 20 percent of the total U.S. budget for the five-year war.

That's according to the most comprehensive study to date (.pdf) of private contractors in Iraq, released today by the Congressional Budget Office.

The CBO estimates that more than 190,000 contractors were working on U.S.-funded contracts in the Iraq theater as of early 2008. This is somewhat higher than past estimates and far outnumbers the roughly 150,000 U.S. troops inside the country."

The IHT reports on the same subject:

"The United States has reached the $85 billion mark in spending on contractors in Iraq since the invasion in 2003, according to a new government report released Tuesday, a milestone that reflects the Bush administration's unprecedented level of dependence on private companies for help in the war.

The report by the Congressional Budget Office says that about one out of every five dollars spent on the war in Iraq has gone to contractors for the U.S. military and other government agencies. Employees of private contractors now outnumber U.S. troops in the war zone."

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