US Has Spent $100 Billion On Private Contractors Since Iraq Invasion

New York Times:

The United States this year will have spent $100 billion on contractors in Iraq since the invasion in 2003, a milestone that reflects the Bush administration's unprecedented level of dependence on private firms for help in the war, according to a government report to be released Tuesday.

The report, by the Congressional Budget Office, according to people with knowledge of its contents, will say that one out of every five dollars spent on the war in Iraq has gone to contractors for the United States military and other government agencies, in a war zone where employees of private contractors now outnumber American troops.

The Pentagon's reliance on outside contractors in Iraq is proportionately far larger than in any previous conflict, and it has fueled charges that this outsourcing has led to overbilling, fraud and shoddy and unsafe work that has endangered and even killed American troops. The role of armed security contractors has also raised new legal and political questions about whether the United States has become too dependent on private armed forces on the 21st-century battlefield.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[researcher]

05:16 PM on 08/12/2008

well we gave them democracy

small price to pay for democracy

now vote mc cain

I live in az and we love him here

a true war hero

to his credit he would have bombed every man woman and child in vietnam to win that war

that is the mark of a true war hero and american patroit

god bless america truly god's chosen nation

signed
just your average evangel repub

so what if we have to borrow money from communists, socialists and kings to keep this country going if it was not for the liberals we would own the world

[guntotinganglion]

05:15 PM on 08/12/2008

As in all things, Americans do everything bigger and "better" than anybody else...including graft and corruption.

[MajorKong]

04:11 PM on 08/12/2008

Obviously I picked the wrong line on career-day.

[southafrica4obama]

12:29 PM on 08/12/2008

I'm surprised, this is not even close to front page

[peterg76]

11:06 AM on 08/12/2008

Well, duh. That was the goal of the invasion, in case no-one was paying attention.

[Moshe]

10:59 AM on 08/12/2008

"U.S. Has Spent $100 billion on Private Contractors Since Iraq Invasion"

Cheney/Halliburton: "Mission Accomplished"

[LynnDee]

10:57 AM on 08/12/2008

This is privitazation in a nutshell. Pay consultants and outside contractors for their outrageous markups and let them take jobs away from people who would be paid the normal going rate. It is happening all over the US. This administration has just refined it to a higher level with bigger dollars at stake.

Here is a solution, they outstrip our military? Put them all in uniform and make them fight. Money well spent in my book and bring our real heros home!!!

[Moshe]

11:26 AM on 08/12/2008

The neo-con version of a "free market" is no-bid insider contracts at corruptly outrageous prices that "legalize" theft from U.S. tax payers.

And through massive deficit spending, they have even figured out a way to steal from Americans that are not even born yet, but when they are, they will be saddled with paying off the neo-cons massive debt.

The neo-cons are not conservatives. They are corrupt thugs hiding behind a phoney ideology.

[lobear00]

10:13 AM on 08/12/2008

Senator Dorgan, many of your colleagues are the "Problem". They have infested the congress with the "Bug" called "Corruption".

[1differentdrummer]

10:55 AM on 08/12/2008

I think you make a mistake, the issue is the Republican administration turning billions of $ over to cronies. Of course, the Republican majorities in previous congresses were complicit and those remaining still are, but you imply the Dem congress is complicit. Turn the rascals out and give the Dems a solid majority in congress and turn the WH over to Obama and watch the crew clean up after the elephants.

[Rog49Thomas]

10:04 AM on 08/12/2008

What's an interesting sidebar to this topic is that Blackwater is under investigation with respect to its acquisition of some $100mm in "small business" contracts. See today's WaPo for details.

[1differentdrummer]

10:59 AM on 08/12/2008

Of course thy are a small business. Aren't they smaller than GE?

[gcallaghan]

09:40 AM on 08/12/2008

Republicans = Military Failure

[guntotinganglion]

05:05 PM on 08/12/2008

Military Failure = Financial Success

[darthdarcy]

09:35 AM on 08/12/2008

If you haven't read it here's a chance to do so...

War is a Racket:

Major General Smedley Butler USMC

http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

War is a Racket..!

[guntotinganglion]

05:06 PM on 08/12/2008

Which would seem to indicate that Warriors are Racketeers.

[rbenjamin]

08:59 AM on 08/12/2008

Just for comparison.

That's about :

700 Raptor F22 at current flyaway cost,

40% of the entire yearly US electric power bill,

20,000 miles of new highway to replace whats falling apart at home,

4 years worth of annual US hospital construction costs,

and so on

[guntotinganglion]

05:09 PM on 08/12/2008

Or how about a manned base on the moon, with all the infrastructure!?

[southafrica4obama]

08:40 AM on 08/12/2008

"employees of private contractors now outnumber American troops"

[AmandaBC]

08:39 AM on 08/12/2008

"In the middle of the war, Microsoft, DHL and other corporations invited Halliburton to a conference, to figure out how much money could be made in Iraq."

-- From "Fahrenheit 911"

[JAB20]

08:30 AM on 08/12/2008

I'm reminded of the novel, Catch 22 where profit-making ran it all.