As Obama Sends More Troops, Giant Shadow Army Of Contractors Set To Grow In Afghanistan

Interesting article... be sure to look at the numbers of contractors compared to the number of troops! 70% of the individuals working over there are contractors! BIG MONEY!

Source...

With President Obama addressing the nation tonight about a new escalation in Afghanistan, a perennially underexamined topic is once again receiving short shrift: the huge force of contractors, which as of June outnumbered the size of the U.S. troop presence itself, is likely to swell. The Administration seemingly hasn't addressed the issue, and the word "contractor" doesn't appear much in media coverage -- for example, in the Times and Post stories on the escalation today. But David Berteau, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, tells TPM that as Obama increases troop levels to at least 100,000, "there will definitely be an increase in the number of contractors."

The number of contractors in Afghanistan as of June was 73,968, compared with 55,107 troops. Of the total contractors, about 10,000 are Americans, 51,000 are locals, and roughly 12,000 are third-country nationals. Take a look at this graph from the study:

[edit on 12/1/2009 by x2Strongx]

By the way, did you catch the Walmart Christmas Commercial? I am talking about the one that appeared before Thanksgiving.

I am talking about that one where a little kid told Santa that he wanted snow for his dad who (I guess) is serving in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

It was touching and emotional. And this is what I found the most offensive about it. I thought that it was very wrong to make a commercial venture out of war, family seperation and the illusion that Walmart actually cares about the USA and the military (I am not sure if they do or don't but they have a bad reputation as far as being good to America for America's own good).

The commercial begins with some troops coming off of patrol (looking more like actors than real troops, of course) and being astonished at the sight of flakes falling on them in the hot desert.

Being ex-military, I do not think of snow when I see flakes falling on troops in a desert war-zone. And being someone who keeps up with current world events and who has nukes and who wants nukes, I also do not think of snow in this context.

That is right, nuclear fall out.

But since the kid at the end of the commercial tells hims mom that he wished for "something for Dad" the idea of it being nuclear fall out has a very dark quality.

But still, I think the very existance of this commerical is alarming. It shows a lot of things and all the things it shows are pretty bad. It shows that the american public are so easily moved by fantasy from a big company to buy from it. It shows that people are willing to accept the commercialization of what should be more heart-felt. But it also shows how people do not really know how serious this war really is and what threats await us if we do not take it seriously.

In fact, does The President know? I have read that he is planning on leaving Afghanistan in 3 years no matter if we win or not.

So I have decided to make a youtube mashup about this commercial. I made it in a way that the blame for the dark tone of the kid wanting nuclear fallout on his dad to be on the heads of The Taliban.

That is what you call supporting the troops.
But that is a lot of cooks and fort help.

Don't forget those contractors also support the NATO troops there as well, not just the US forces. NATO will probably be increasing their contingent also.

I contracted in Iraq for four years. I supported the Thai's, Bulgarians, Poles, Hungarians, Romanians and the Brit's, while i was there.

US Contractors don't support only the US forces.

Originally posted by TeslaandLyne
That is what you call supporting the troops.
But that is a lot of cooks and fort help.

Cooks?

Do you mean Kooks?

Making americans take the nuclear threat seriously supports the survival of the United States

www.youtube.com...

Some "people" who I guess love Walmart have gotten to the video first and are gleefully giving it one star so that people will not bother watching it.

I think it is a good parody and has an important message.