Contractor Deaths in Iraq

[babylonsister]

http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2539

Contractor Deaths in Iraq
by: Brandon Friedman
Mon Mar 09, 2009 at 05:38:31 AM EDT

This fact comes from an AP article about an American security contractor killed in Iraq on Sunday:

The AP has reported 1,264 civilian employees of U.S. government contractors died through Sept. 30, 2008, the latest figures available. The vast majority of civilian contractors in Iraq are employed by the Pentagon.

Am I the only person to not realize that almost a quarter of all American deaths in Iraq have been contractors?

[orestes]

1. By contractors, do they mean mercenaries?

Or do they include folks who were driving trucks and such, doing what would normally be a civilian job?

[wartrace]

2. Mercs, truck drivers, cooks, interpretors ect.....

Para-military contractors would be the term for mercs.