Pratap Chatterjee joined the Center for American Progress in September 2010 as a Visiting Fellow specializing in federal procurement reform. He wrote on Jun 29, 2011 an article which predicts that, once Obama's troop withdrawal plan goes into effect, the number of "private contractors" aka mercenaries, engaged in Afghanistan will surge. His analysis reveals that " the one group that has seen demand explode since Obama became president is the number of private security contractors (men or women with guns), which spiked from a flat line of about 4,000 to almost 19,000 today."
CHART: Number Of Contractors In Afghanistan Will Surge As U.S. Troops Withdraw
The number of contractors in Afghanistan is likely to increase significantly in the next year as the Obama administration pulls back some of the extra 68,000 troops that it has dispatched there since January 2009.
Typically, the U.S. pays one contractor to support every soldier that has deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq. The ratio of contractors to troops increases dramatically during a military surge as well as during a drawdown, and often stays higher than troop levels when military numbers are low, i.e. down to 30,000-50,000.
The reason is simple — the military needs extra workers to build new bases as well as to shut them down. Just like a hotel or restaurant, a military base also needs a minimum number of people to do the basics like janitorial or food service work. And as troops withdraw, U.S. diplomats are likely to hire extra security contractors as they are doing now in Iraq.
See Chart and continue reading...and don't skip the comments! They are priceless.
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