War’s Risks Shift to Contractors

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Contractors from the United States and other countries were wounded in an attack last year in Logar Province, Afghanistan. (NYTimes)

By ROD NORDLAND (NYTimes)
Published: February 11, 2012

KABUL, Afghanistan — Even dying is being outsourced here.

This is a war where traditional military jobs, from mess hall cooks to base guards and convoy drivers, have increasingly been shifted to the private sector. Many American generals and diplomats have private contractors for their personal bodyguards. And along with the risks have come the consequences: More civilian contractors working for American companies than American soldiers died in Afghanistan last year for the first time during the war.

American employers here are under no obligation to publicly report the deaths of their employees and frequently do not. While the military announces the names of all its war dead, private companies routinely notify only family members. Most of the contractors die unheralded and uncounted — and in some cases, leave their survivors uncompensated.

“By continuing to outsource high-risk jobs that were previously performed by soldiers, the military, in effect, is privatizing the ultimate sacrifice,” said Steven L. Schooner, a law professor at George Washington University who has studied the civilian casualties issue.

Last year, at least 430 employees of American contractors were reported killed in Afghanistan: 386 working for the Defense Department, 43 for the United States Agency for International Development and one for the State Department, according to data provided by the American Embassy in Kabul and publicly available in part from the United States Department of Labor.

By comparison, 418 American soldiers died in Afghanistan last year, according to Defense Department statistics compiled by icasualties.org, an independent organization that monitors war deaths.

That trend has been growing for the past several years in Afghanistan, and it parallels a similar trend in Iraq, where contractor deaths exceeded military deaths as long ago as 2009. In Iraq, however, that took place as the number of American troops was being drastically reduced until their complete withdrawal at the end of last year. And last year, more soldiers than private contractors died in Iraq (54 compared with 41, according to Labor Department figures).

Experts who have studied the phenomenon say that because many contractors do not comply with even the current, scanty reporting requirements, the true number of private contractor deaths may be far higher. “No one believes we’re underreporting military deaths,” Mr. Schooner said. “Everyone believes we’re underreporting contractor deaths.”

Qais Mansoori, 20, may have been among the uncounted. An Afghan interpreter employed by Mission Essential Personnel, a leading provider of interpreters in Afghanistan, Mr. Mansoori was killed along with five other interpreters when Taliban insurgents overran the military base where the interpreters were staying in the Mirwais district of Kandahar Province in July 2010.

That attack, typically, was scantily reported, since no soldiers died — although the death toll was 17, including an unidentified American civilian, according to Afghan officials and Mr. Mansoori’s friends and family.

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5. Electrical Risks at Bases in Iraq Worse Than Previously Said

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Written by Ms Sparky. This entry was posted on February 11, 2012 at 7:34 pm and is filed under CONTRACTOR DEATHS, DBA-AIG, GOV. CONTRACTORS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Tagged Aegis, DBA-AIG, Defense Base Act, Defense Base Act Compensation Blog, Department of Labor, DoD Contractors, DoD*, DynCorp*, Hart Group, icasualties.org, James McLaughlin Jr., James Scott Ozier, L-3 Communications, Marcie Hascall Clark, Michael Clawson, Mission Essential Personnel, MPRI, Service Employees International (SEII), Steven L. Schooner, Supreme Group USA, Titan, Todd Walker You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.