The private contractor escalation in Afghanistan outnumbers the US military's

By Steve Hynd

Justin Elliot at TPM has done sterling work getting some figures out of the DoD on the number of private security contractors in Afghanistan.

The latest figure on DOD contractors in the country is a whopping 104,100, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command tells TPM. That number, which is expected to grow, is already greater than the 98,000 U.S. troops that will be in the country after the new deployments.

We told you yesterday about the little-noticed but giant shadow army of contractors that allows the United States to prosecute the war by providing food, transport, construction, security, and other services. Many believe the size of the contracting force presents security and transparency concerns.

And the lack of discussion of the topic -- Obama, for example, didn't mention contractors in his address last night -- warps perceptions of the size of the American commitment in Afghanistan.

And that large number has a negative effect for dreams of population-centric COIN.

Kloppel told TPM yesterday that there are roughly 9,000 private security contractors, though the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan says there are at least 14,000. That would not include private security for other countries or contractors. The Army Times published a story yesterday showing just how damaging bad contractors can be to the counterinsurgency strategy: along one route in Kandahar province, over 30 civilians have been killed or wounded by heavily armed security contractors, who are mostly Afghans.

A lot of those Afghan contractors are run by warlords as their own personal militias, and most pay the Taliban or other warlords protection money.

Meanwhile, the ADD public has been given a spurious date of 2011 to pin it's Hope^(tm) on. Oh look, a bunny!

Comments

[Lex]

That's the rub, eh? It's especially disconcerting to consider that whichever Afghan the DoD pays is a "contractor". Yeah, sure in the strictest definition, but when you're neck deep in a civil war that may not be the best way to extricate yourself.