The official death toll for government contractors in Iraq has spiked to record setting highs during the first three months of this year, according to statistics released by the Department of Labor.  These figures place the total number of contractors killed at 917, with 146 of those deaths occurring in January, February, and March of this year.  An additional 12,000 have been wounded on the job, with 3,430 of these casualties in the same three month period.  With military death’s at about 3,400 right now, that means that there is one contractor killed for every four soldiers. 

Some analysts attribute the incredible amount of deaths to the strategy of attacking “soft” targets that is employed by the insurgents, but others feel that we are not providing the troops with enough military security and backing.  Senator McCain has been outspoken about his view that the US needs to send more troops to Iraq so that the entire country can be secured.  He feels that nothing can be accomplished in Iraq until we have secured all of the important sites in the country.  In addition, some representatives in Congress are pushing for a bill that would force companies to release the names and job titles of all casualties in Iraq.  This does not seem likely because businesses have more of a right to privacy and are not required to disclose this information under today’s precedents. 

It seems to me that we have a real problem on our hands when the people who are trying to repair the damage we have done to Iraq are being killed left and right.  The fact that 1/5 of the US casualties in Iraq are government contractors is definitely cause for concern.  First of all, I think that McCain is a little bit off track.  The US can’t afford to provide any more soldiers to Iraq and still have a safe reserve in case of other developing conflicts.  Even if we were to add more soldiers to the fray, we would never be able to secure all of the important sites in Iraq.  It’s a huge country, and we just don’t have the man power for that kind of occupation.  In addition, each of these contracting firms invests a great deal of money into private guards that they keep on site out there.  In one article, it was mentioned that these security specialists were paid in the range of $6,000.  I think the problem is that these sites are sitting ducks for insurgent attacks.  They never change location, they are always staffed and populated, and they are important goals in the US war effort. 

Whatever the reason for the spike in casualties, it is clear that the contractors are one of the most important factors in succeeding in Iraq.  There are many out there who believe that we can’t leave the country until it is fully repaired and strengthened, and this repair can’t occur when the people responsible for it are constantly under attack.  While we can’t spare more military units, perhaps we should think about switching the majority of our units to the sites that we are trying to repair.  I think that the security of these key projects is much more important than sending patrols into neighborhoods in Baghdad.  The government might work itself out if we give them a solid infrastructure to start building off of. 

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