A recent report by the US Congress has found that private security contractors in Afghanistan are dying at 4.5 times the rate that US soldiers are in the nation. The report also found that the contractors’ deaths go virtually unreported internationally.
While most of the contractors are said to have been killed guarding convoys, though the exact details are largely unknown, and the deaths are scarcely investigated.
The number of security contractors has also risen precipitously, from 2,401 in September 2007 to 3,184 in December 2008. Since President Obama took office the number as increased more than fourfold, with 13,214 contractors now operating under the Department of Defense.
Despite the fact that there are nearly 100,000 US troops in Afghanistan, the death toll from the much smaller pool of contractors is actually not far from the same. 260 were killed from June 2009 through April 2010. There is no reliable data available since then.
Reliable data? I'm not sure I trust the defense department to tell us exactly how many contractors they are using or exactly how many have died. It's sheer folly to believe what a government that lies more than it tells the truth, a government RIGHT NOW hunting down anyone who might reveal the truth (whistleblowers). Folly, at best.
How nice of the U.S. & NATO to sent streams of pinatas full of bling for the impoverished local umah. All the better that an admitted anti-Muslim crusader is or may be responsible for protecting the booty.
Getting at all the interesting toys and goodies in the containers therefor becomes defending Islam and not stealing which is so sternly proscribed by the Koran…
Please do not call these people contractors – they are mercenaries. They are paid mercenaries and they are well aware of the dangers that their job entails before they sign up. I have no sympathy for these people. They deserve what they get!!
Please do not call these people contractors – they are mercenaries. They are paid mercenaries and they are well aware of the dangers that their job entails before they sign up. I have no sympathy for these people. They deserve what they get!!
These mercenaries would be in prison for murders were it not for Afghanistan. These people are evil/violent.
How many innocent people and families have they wiped out?
Amen, they're not Contractors, they're "Contract Killers", and they deserve no compassion because they do what they do with full consiousness. But, the same applies to ordinary Soldiers, they too are contract killers in the service of Politicians, and if they've surrendered their free will to others to do with as they please, then that is their affair. There is no "Honour" in Soldiery, it is merely a less well-paid form of Mercenary work …
archmangle,
could not agree more.. recently a U.S. general said that, "it is fun to shoot people…"
If we ever get martial law…LOOK OUT!
Martial law will be bloody but it will lead to the overthrow of the US predatory Capitalist warfare state.
archmangle,
could not agree more.. recently a U.S. general said that, "it is fun to shoot people…"
If we ever get martial law…LOOK OUT!
archmangle,
could not agree more.. recently a U.S. general said that, "it is fun to shoot people…"
If we ever get martial law…LOOK OUT!
My sympathies are with innocent, helpless and weaponless VICTIMS of paid murderers/contract killers!
Is it legal to hire armed contract killers in the US not accountable to American law? No! You must add a premise of being a superior being as an American Imperialist Missionary. But one notices, that that is no problem at all for the majority of the American somnambulists or zombies, which makes a joke of their labelling themselves as PEOPLE!
However, when it is like that, how can they still claim to be superior to foreigners? Because they are DUMBER than normal people, of course. A parody on human beings! Empty, vain and cynical trash!
However true your characterizations merely voicing them accomplishes nothing.
The mercenary private contractors and their Capitalist bosses and the rest all know it already.
It's part of their program.
Incdentally, Balckwater/Xe has several police training installations, including California and Illinois.
Also they have been trying to get into Border Patrol.
I agree with you 100%..they are heartless Mercenaries..In Chechnya, the Chechen fighters let go the Russian soldier out of mercy because they were very young and pushed to war they didn't need, hence, the Chechen fighters did what is the best when they caought Mercenaries. They chopped their arms and legs and sent them to their homes…I wish Taliban fighters do that to put fear on these bastards who got no idology exept money.
Rumsfeld, as one recalls, signed a legally worthless exception to the anti-Pinkerton act.
The military contractors, and especially the Eric Prince Blackwater/Xe variety, are not only obviously mercenaries, they are illegal according to American law.
Ah, the joys of "privatization."
Employees of Balckwater/Xe are guard dogs for the robbery class just like US Army is, Balckwater/Xe boys get paid more cause if it need be they will fight US Army units who side with citizens.
Private contractors in Afghanistan have 4.5 times the casualty rate of soldiers, eh? I think what we are seeing here is evidence that the US Govt lies about the actual number of soldier deaths, as has been rumored for years. The actual proportion of contractor deaths versus soldier deaths is probably a lot closer to a 1 or 1.5 to 1 ratio. What this shows is that the actual number of soldier deaths in Afghanistan is about 3 to 4 times higher than the official number of deaths.