While US troop numbers in Afghanistan are down to 2,500, a deep US presence remains in the form of contractors working for the Pentagon.
According to a report released by the US military this week, there are over 18,000 contractors in Afghanistan. The numbers mean that the Pentagon employs about seven contractors for each US service member in Afghanistan.
At the height of President Obama’s Afghanistan surge, there was about one contractor for each US soldier. As troop numbers decreased, the Pentagon increased reliance on contractors.
About 4,700 of the current contractors are Afghans that were hired locally. The remaining come from outside of the country, including about a third who are US citizens.
US military contractors in Afghanistan are at the center of a major scandal, having been accused of paying the Taliban “protection money” by families of US soldiers that have been wounded or killed in the country.
The Pentagon announced last Friday that it had completed its troop drawdown in Afghanistan, leaving 2,500 troops in the country, the lowest number since 2001. The US-Taliban peace deal signed in February calls for a complete US withdrawal from the country by Spring 2021.
It’s not clear if the Biden administration will follow through on the pull out. The deep entrenchment of contractors in the country shows there are a lot of interests to keep the almost 20-year-long conflict going.
All about the Benjamins once again. Can’t make this stuff up. No one would believe what goes on without exception.
“over 18ooo”….18,001, or 40, ooo ? There is a record, just not sayin. Where’s Eric Prince ?
Home counting the money. And laughing his *ss off. Laughing even harder because 4 of his murdering employees were pardoned.
May all mercenaries come home in bags.
They do not represent me…………….
What is the difference.
The Pentagon gets trillions in tax money and finances their own private foreign legions to operate without oversight on behalf of corporations, Israel, and the Cocaine Import Agency. It is good to know that there is some level of criminality that our official uniformed gangs of killers won’t do. I really doubt that anyone being occupied and murdered can make a distinction between which Americans are doing it.
if pentagon admits 18,000 probably 40,000—all are paid minimum $100,000 annually
Mercs running rampant subject to no law.
How many contractors do we have in Syria and Iraq?