How did the U.S. became so reliant on expensive military contractors?
First, what are military contractors? They are private corporations that have taken over jobs that used to be performed by the military. Their jobs now include maintenance of ships, in charge of arming planes, constructing military bases and housing, feeding the troops, in Iraq we see them guarding bases, and as was widely made public with the abuses in Abu Ghraib prison, in charge of interpretations for prisoners. The scale of military contractors today is immense. There are 20,000 contractors and close to 50 different companies operating. The majority of U.S. contractors receive 3-5 times the salary of what U.S. soldiers make. But many of these contractors employ troops from overseas and these people receive much smaller salaries. Most people are familiar with the largest contractor, Haliburton, where incidentally, Vice-President Cheney was the executive before he ran for office with President Bush. Why were these jobs privatized? At the end of Cold War the size of the military budge
