This is a continuation from yesterday’s post about the CRS report. You don’t hear this figure in all the crazy surge talk, but you sure do hear a lot about the troop surge or civilian surge. I guess we are not surge-worthy? lol
What I thought was interesting in the report, is that they don’t know how many security contractors there are in Afghanistan, but the report promises that this data will be in the next report. Hmmmm. Suspicious.
There used to be data for this. They have the numbers for Iraq at about 12,684 security contractors at this time. –Matt
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Up to 56,000 more contractors likely for Afghanistan, congressional agency says
By Walter PincusWednesday, December 16, 2009
The surge of 30,000 U.S. troops into Afghanistan could be accompanied by a surge of up to 56,000 contractors, vastly expanding the presence of personnel from the U.S. private sector in a war zone, according to a study by the Congressional Research Service.
CRS, which provides background information to members of Congress on a bipartisan basis, said it expects an additional 26,000 to 56,000 contractors to be sent to Afghanistan. That would bring the number of contractors in the country to anywhere from 130,000 to 160,000.
The tally “could increase further if the new [administration] strategy includes a more robust construction and nation building effort,” according to the report, which was released Monday and first disclosed on the Web site Talking Points Memo.