According to a report by a Congressional research group, U.S. private contractors working for the Pentagon in Afghanistan outnumber U.S. troops in the country. As of March, contractors made up 57 percent of the U.S. occupation force in Afghanistan.
There are more than 68,000 contractors in the country. That is the highest ratio of contractors to military troops in any war in the history of the United States.
According to the report, the U.S. Congress spent at least $106 billion for private U.S. contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2003 through the first half of the 2008 fiscal year.
Although the imperialists have always relied on private contractors to carry out war and occupation, never before have the figures been this high.
Private contractors and U.S. troops function as colonial occupation forces working in the interest of the oil companies and other corporate giants. The Pentagon’s costly colonial apparatus should be dismantled immediately. Instead of funding private company shock troops, Washington should fund jobs, health care and education.
