Nearly 150,000 Private Contractors Could be Active in Afghanistan
Dec. 17, 09 (Hamsayeh.Net) - A US congressional agency predicts up to 56,000 additional contractors for Afghanistan, wrote Walter Pincus of Washington Post on Wednesday.
The contracting positions covered up to 69 percent of all US personnel in Afghanistan since last December, fighting a war against the Taliban from 2002 onward. The total number of hired private personnel is now the largest of its kind in US history. In reality President Obama’s troop surge announcement of 30,000 would be accompanied by another surge of 56,000 contractors employed to perform various tasks in that war-torn nation.
If all goes according to plans, the US Army would have about 100,000 combat troops as well as 160,000 private contractors by the end of the surge in Afghanistan. US Defense Department officials are devising new strategies to change the role of contractors in counterinsurgency operations. ‘Prior to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, contracting was done on an ad-hoc basis and was not adequately incorporated into the doctrine -- or culture -- of the military,’ a US Defense Department report explained.
New contracting jobs in Afghanistan include:
- Hiring teams of contractors to perform electronic monitoring of related information.
- Awarding $44.8 million contract to a Florida firm that provides trained dogs to be used in hot spots near borders with Pakistan.
- Contracting jobs for intelligence analyst services that include ‘collecting, analyzing and providing recommendations necessary for the government to produce and disseminate intelligence products in several subject areas.’
- Contracting positions ‘Defense Logistics Agency’ which would provide distribution and warehousing services for US and NATO forces in the Kandahar area.
This huge number of troops from the US and NATO forces would be fighting against nearly 25,000 Talibs in southern parts of Afghanistan near Pakistan. The US government has announced the war is to route out the Al-Qaeda in the area, but based on reliable reports there are only less than 100 members of Al-Qaeda, remain active in Afghanistan.
Some military experts see such massive number of troops and privates contractors as clear waste of money, time and lives on a grand scale not seen before.
MSN - - - Wikipedia - Hamsayeh.Net
