If private contractors are talking with a local sheik and making deals to secure workers for a local site, then that is an area where ’strategic communication’ could be negatively tweaked. Because now that sheik thinks they are not only talking to a private contractor, but a representative of the US military. In the eyes of the local populations, if we are in their country, we are the foreigner occupiers no matter if we are civilian or military.

I hope to do a story about this Strategic Communications concept, of getting all the diplomats and leaders involved with interacting with the various countries that we have an interest in for the war effort. Th SC is supposed to lay down the foundation of how we are to talk with people, and what we should be talking about, so we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot for our over all big picture. It is like the political and diplomatic side of COIN, that is necessary, and the private contracting industry needs to be included in that conversation.

It was interesting that the number of contractors seems a little more realistic than the 100,000 everyone said we had before. I always thought it was funny that I kept seeing the same guys everywhere if there were supposedly so many of us about.