Hidden From View: Nearly 800 contractors killed in Iraq

Nearly 800 contractors killed in Iraq
By MICHELLE ROBERTS

In a largely invisible cost of the war in Iraq, nearly 800 civilians working under contract to the Pentagon have been killed and more than 3,300 hurt doing jobs normally handled by the U.S. military, according to figures gathered by The Associated Press.

Exactly how many of these employees doing the Pentagon's work are Americans is uncertain. But the casualty figures make it clear that the Defense Department's count of more than 3,100 U.S. military dead does not tell the whole story.

"It's another unseen expense of the war," said Thomas Houle, a retired Air Force reservist whose brother-in-law died while driving a truck in Iraq. "It's almost disrespectful that it doesn't get the kind of publicity or respect that a soldier would."

Employees of defense contractors such as Halliburton, Blackwater and Wackenhut cook meals, do laundry, repair infrastruture, translate documents, analyze intelligence, guard prisoners, protect military convoys, deliver water in the heavily fortified Green Zone and stand sentry at buildings — often highly dangerous duties almost identical to those performed by many U.S. troops.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070223/ap_on_re_us/iraq_contractors

Wow. If someone asked me to guess, I would've said maybe 30 to 50. I never hear about it so I didn't think it was in the hundreds. Very sad.

Why the hell would the military need contractors to protect them??

Seems to me like it's the other way around!