Afghan War Risks Are Shifting To Contractors

nytimes.com:

American employers here are under no obligation to publicly report the deaths of their employees and frequently do not. While the military announces the names of all its war dead, private companies routinely notify only family members. Most of the contractors die unheralded and uncounted -- and in some cases, leave their survivors uncompensated.

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[breakingpoint]

01:12 AM on 02/13/2012

good

[eljefefx]

08:56 AM on 02/13/2012

You cheer their deaths?

[jdryv]

11:24 PM on 02/12/2012

the war in afghanistan, as was iraq, is a government program; the kind we like to ridicule for waste, inefficiency, corruption, cost etc. only it is the biggest government program there is and embodies the most of the worst attributes.

[Roy l Payne]

10:58 PM on 02/12/2012

will we use these same contractors in Iran? Or will we hire new ones? Hey, maybe this is the Republitarian plan for jobs??? Geez Boehner, is this what you meant?

[KIVPossum]

09:55 PM on 02/12/2012

Don't call them civilians, they are mercenaries.

[Richcrafter]

09:55 PM on 02/12/2012

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[rotorhead1871]

09:23 PM on 02/12/2012

we call them contractors now........they use to be called mercenaries....

[jingl]

08:45 PM on 02/12/2012

Armies always march with a host of personnel. Ancient camps were filled with people other than warriors: blacksmiths, carpenters, cooks, farriers, launderers, madams and their sporting ladies, doctors, and many more that made a mobile army possible. This is nothing new. Nor are mercenaries and profiteering new. Nor is blood and guts, or courage and fear, collateral damage and friendly fire, loss of limb and loss of life. And folks who chose to follow the ancient armies were as susceptible to these events as soldiers.

[laymancanuck]

08:08 PM on 02/12/2012

This is another Con job on the public to minimize the true cost of war.

[plages]

07:09 PM on 02/12/2012

Define civilians, and don't show off a laborer with a saw, or hammer in hand! Could it be the State Departments Mercenaries, which are NOT beholding to military law, or even US judicial laws?

[JPETERB]

08:31 PM on 02/12/2012

For any person required to use a weapon to do his or her job and provide armed services, it is deeply dishonestly and inaccurately to refer to them as "civilians" or simply as "Americans" in Afghanistan. An Afghan providing these same armed services in the American Homeland would likely be identified as a "terrorist" or "enemy combatant." And that would be the end of them as human beings with rights, let alone "freedom spreading" Afghani citizens in America.

[zitlight73]

06:53 PM on 02/12/2012

Do you mean contractors the kind that builds things or mercenaries who kill people? Let's start cleaning up our vocabulary from all the Bushisms that have polluted it it in the last ten years.

[eljefefx]

06:47 PM on 02/12/2012

It is interesting to see people talk about mercenaries, when in fact not all contractors are mercenaries (aka security experts).

The past three years I've had the "pleasure" of spending time in Afghanistan and have met many, many contractors. The men and women who prepare and serve food at the DFAC (dining facility) are contractors. The people who run the cement plant that created our barriers were contractors. The people who cleaned up around the base, be it the lavatories, showers, trash, waste; they were all contractors. The man working the Western Union counter was a contractor, the guys fixing prop planes are contractors. And yes, the people repairing MRAP's and Buffalo's -the very vehicles that kept our guys safe- were contractors.

Are they then, mercenaries? I don't believe so, but then again, I've actually met these people and talked with them. I wonder how many here have actually spent time in that place and can recognize the difference between a contractor and a mercenary.

[JPETERB]

08:34 PM on 02/12/2012

Were they invited? What are they doing there? Who pays them? Would you want any Afghans to provide the same services in your community?

[eljefefx]

09:09 PM on 02/12/2012

Afghans do provide the same services. LN's, Local Nationals, make up the bulk of any base work force. If you had been over there, you would know this.

[KIVPossum]

09:58 PM on 02/12/2012

To answer your question - yes, I would consider them mercenaries. They are willing to help make war for the sake of a greasy buck.

[eljefefx]

10:18 PM on 02/12/2012

Actually a lot of the time they are helping make French fries.

[Genders]

06:28 PM on 02/12/2012

Mercenaries anywhere are a threat to liberty everywhere.

[Nomccain]

05:27 PM on 02/12/2012

Imagine, war as an industry employing thousands. That's what it has become. The military industrial complex is greasing it's wheels off the blood and guts of our nation's best while they plot how they can start yet another conflict somewhere else., Could it be Iran next? Probably so. Here we rebuild what we tear up while our own nation's infrastructure goes to Hell in a hand basket and the nation's workers go unemployed. Sounds about right to me.?!?!

[Phoebe917]

05:46 PM on 02/12/2012

you are right. and, it is disgusting. there are a ton of people, corporations, companies etc. who have gotten majorly rich on these two debacles. i am a very empathetic person, but i have zero respect for these mercenaries who go into war zones, getting paid probably three times more than our troops. (probably more than that). and now, the families of these deceased are complaining that aren't being properly compensated? unbelievable.

[zitlight73]

06:54 PM on 02/12/2012

The next war is already in the works and their are going to use the same tactics that got us involved in Iraq.

[wa-st-concerned]

04:40 PM on 02/12/2012

As long as war is privitized - making mercenaries legal - it will continue unabated.

Until we remove money from governing and elections ALL this will continue. Until the people actually govern instead of these predatory corporations, it will ALL continue.

[ussuri]

04:52 PM on 02/12/2012

amen. words of wisdom !

[Steamboater]

04:30 PM on 02/12/2012

American civilians killed at a faster rate than American soldiers. So? Are we supposed to take comfort from that?

[ussuri]

04:55 PM on 02/12/2012

no. the US taxpayers pay for contractors also. it looks like their families may not be compensated properly.