Private U.S. Contractors Are Returning To Iraq

A U.S. soldier performs a radio check during a patrol in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad (Reuters/Saad Shalash)

As U.S. Troops Return To Iraq, More Private Contractors Follow -- Reuters

(Reuters) - The U.S. government is preparing to boost the number of private contractors in Iraq as part of President Barack Obama's growing effort to beat back Islamic State militants threatening the Baghdad government, a senior U.S. official said.

How many contractors will deploy to Iraq - beyond the roughly 1,800 now working there for the U.S. State Department - will depend in part, the official said, on how widely dispersed U.S. troops advising Iraqi security forces are, and how far they are from U.S. diplomatic facilities.

Still, the preparations to increase the number of contractors - who can be responsible for everything from security to vehicle repair and food service - underscores Obama's growing commitment in Iraq. When U.S. troops and diplomats venture into war zones, contractors tend to follow, doing jobs once handled by the military itself.

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More News On The Return Of U.S. Contractors To Iraq

US to send more private contractors to Iraq -- Al Jazeera
More private contractors following US troops to Iraq -- Press TV
Miss Blackwater Yet? U.S. Private Mercenaries Back in Iraq -- Sputnik
Instead of Boots on the Ground, US Seeks Iraq Contractors -- Military.com/Stars and Stripes
America's paid boots on the ground -- The Week

My Comment: This was all predicted 4 months ago .... As troops head back to Iraq as ‘advisers,’ more contractors can’t be far behind (Washington Post) .... and even 10 months ago .... Role of U.S. Contractors Grows as Iraq Fights Insurgents (Wall Street Journal) and here .... Contractors flood into Iraq to give Al-Qaeda a run for the money (RT).

Update: Here is a sobering statistic on how dangerous life has been for contractors in war zones .... from The Week ....

.... About as many contractors working for the U.S. have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq as U.S. troops, but those deaths generally are ignored in assessing the cost of the wars. As of October 2014, 6,838 troops had been killed in the two conflicts, while the estimated number of contractors killed was some 6,800. Tens of thousands of additional contractors have been injured, with some losing limbs or suffering other permanent disabilities.