LA Times Misleads With Iraq Manpower Story

If you read the headline and early graphs, as I assume Robert Greenwald did before posting at HuffPo, you'd think we had privatized the war in Iraq:

Private contractors outnumber U.S. troops in Iraq
New U.S. data show how heavily the Bush administration has relied on corporations to carry out the occupation of the war-torn nation.
By T. Christian Miller, Times Staff Writer
3:06 PM PDT, July 3, 2007

The number of U.S.-paid private contractors in Iraq now exceeds that of American combat troops, newly released figures show, raising fresh questions about the privatization of the war effort and the government's capacity to carry out military and rebuilding campaigns.

More than 180,000 civilians — including Americans, foreigners and Iraqis — are working in Iraq under U.S. contracts, according to State and Defense Department figures obtained by The Times. Including the recent troop surge, 160,000 soldiers and a few thousand civilian government employees are stationed in Iraq.

It isn't until about 25 graphs in on the second page that you get to the heart of the matter ... then you realize that in terms of individuals carrying weapons, we're talking somewhere between 6 and 10 thousand security contractors.

The number of private security contractors in Iraq remains unclear, despite Central Command's latest census. The Times identified 21 security companies in the Central Command database, deploying 10,800 men. However, the Defense Department's Motsek, who monitors contractors, said the Pentagon estimated the total was 6,000.

So, instead of what? Drafting 100,000 young Americans to drive trucks, haul trash, work in food services, we're employing tens of thousands of Iraqis and some foreign nationals in a country where the economy is struggling to start with, probably doing it at a reduced costs, allowing them to feed their families while keeping more American families together ... and we're supposed to be outraged? How 'bout we split the difference and just call them jobs Americans won't do. The MSM never seems to have a problem with that rationale.

zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Comments

[Fred Beloit]

Looks like the Boob and some of our other Lefty friends won't be drafted in the near future. That's too bad. Six or eight years in the big Inf. would have done them a lot of good. Guess the LAT is also lamenting this. Otherwise why would they treat it as bad news that there is no need for a draft?

[Purple Avenger]

I'm sure the LAT would be "shocked" to find an EVEN GREATER percentage civilian logistics/manufacturing tail attached to our military as a whole.

The stupidity at the LAT is simply breathtaking.

[Sandokan]

""...we're employing tens of thousands of Iraqis and some foreign nationals in a country where the economy is struggling to start with...""

That would be a valid point to make if you knew of one of these major contractors who employs local Iraqis rather that foreigners.
So do you ?

Otherwise those jobs and wages aren't doing anything for the Iraqi economy. And you knew when you posted it that your characterisation of who is employed by those holding US contracts was misleading.

Would certainly be a big scoop for your little 'ol blog to reveal that contrary to all reports and photographic evidence to date, even *just one* of the major US contractors has even *just half* of their employment contracts reserved for Iraqis.

[redherkey]

It's frustrating how terribly ignorant and unresourceful progressives like Sandokan are. They're so entrapped by their desire to fit everything into a flawed worldview that they miss basics. And yet they're outraged when they learn they're regarded as ignorant, mentally unwell misfits by the rest of society.

For example, rather than blather about Sandokan's conspiracy theory, he could have done some basic searching (which presumes a desire to find the truth) and identified an actual list of contractors in Iraq, which is exceptionally international and sustains the original post's point:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Reconstruction_of_Iraq_contractors

This is from a leftist site, which I'm sure lends even further credibility to the information (or is Sandokan going to tell us it's secretly a Bush blog designed to confuse us all? That's as creative as creationists believing God left fake fossils to confuse us all).

There never is any doubt that progressives are irrational, mentally unwell individuals who do not fit well into society. As society's outliers, they project their disorders onto others, support nihlistic beliefs and seek to drag everyone else into their disharmony, delusions and disease rather than face the difficulties of life like the rest of us. They do nothing more than serve as a warning for the rest of us what outcome uncontrolled, undisciplined, uneducated and hateful thought produces.

Our founding fathers would have sent them off to the sick house and kept them from contaminating our communities, showing real compassion yet concern for the protection of society from such damaged persons. Truly, the best thing we can do is to support a national mental health care plan and institutionalize these deluded, confused persons so that no further harm comes to them or our nation.

Happy Independence Day All!

[Purple Avenger]

There simply aren't enough Americans to do all that is being done there. Obviously locals are getting hired.

[thomas hamill]

People,do we really want to hire local iraqi's to drive truck's on convoy mission's.when they may in fact really be insurgents.hauling military supplie's in iraq can not be viewed the same way As military supplies are hauled to bases in the US.when we can be sure that insurgents are not hired as truck drivers,yes we need to help local iraqi's with jobs.there are good and bad people in iraq.do you think an insurgent would put on his application that he moonlight's as an enemy INSURGENT!!!!!!.WAKE UP AMERICA.