Use of Contractors in Iraq Costs Billions, Report Says (CBO)

[maddezmom]

Source: NYT

By JAMES RISEN
Published: August 11, 2008
WASHINGTON — 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.

The budget office’s report found that from 2003 to 2007, the government awarded contracts in Iraq worth about $85 billion, and that the administration was now awarding contracts at a rate of $15 billion to $20 billion a year. At that pace, contracting costs will surge past the $100 billion mark before the end of the year. Through 2007, spending on outside contractors accounted for 20 percent of the total costs of the war, the budget office found, according to the people with knowledge of the report.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/washington/12contractors.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. private armed forces... why not use the real term? Mercenaries.

Scum...

[MadMaddie]

2. But see they had to make up for the Gay soldiers they were

kicking out, and then they had to say that there aren't enough troops and blah blah..blah...:sarcasm:

[mediaman007]

3. Lets see those contractors line up for Georgia.

I bet their price will be a lot higher to head in that direction.

Note: I imagine that contractors have had a deteriorating effect on the military as a whole.

[AlphaCentauri]

4. ha! , poor americans can't pay a mortgage or medical bill

Money in Iraq can be sweep on the sidewalks

[SpiralHawk]

5. "Smirk." - Republicon Cabal O' Cronies

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Demeter]

7. Because People With Too Much Money (BFEE) Don't Know The Value of Anything

They figure they can always afford to replace it when Junior breaks it.

Well, guess what? They are actually going to have to take the cost out of their own pockets, for once. That'll learn them. If not, there's always jail....