They are part of our war: So notes Rosa Brooks, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center.
” In Iraq, civilian contractors form a vast parallel army. In the Persian Gulf War, fewer than 10,000 civilian contractors accompanied more than 500,000 military personnel. In Iraq today, an estimated 126,000 Defense Department civilian contractors support 145,000 troops. Thousands more civilians work under contract to other U.S. government agencies.”
….When civilian contractors die in Iraq, most of us don’t waste many tears. These are guys who went to Iraq out of sheer greed, lured by salaries far higher than those received by military personnel, right? If they get themselves killed, who cares?
But we should all care. Not because it’s our patriotic duty to support the lucrative corporate empires that employ the thousands of civilian contractors in Iraq, but because most of the men and women employed by these corporate giants are in Iraq at our government’s behest.
I really don’t doubt that there are sdeiolrs who were excited for President Obama, whether it’s the honor of being visited by a sitting U.S. president or because they personally support the president’s policies; but I wonder (which can be taken with a grain of salt, but not sure if there is reason to really doubt it) isn’t all that uncommon and wasn’t done under Bush, as well.