Contractors and the Ultimate Sacrifice

Abstract:     
This brief article quantifies how, in Iraq and Afghanistan, contractor personnel increasingly have made the ultimate sacrifice alongside, or in lieu of, service members. The enormity of the contractor sacrifice gives pause - more than 2,000 contractors have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. But what is more striking is that contractors are bearing an increasing proportion of the annual death toll. In the first half of 2010, more contractors died in Iraq and Afghanistan supporting the war effort than members of the U.S. military waging these wars.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 4

Keywords: Contractor Fatalities, Faces of the Fallen, Privatization, Outsourcing, Private Security, Government Contracts, Public Procurement

JEL Classification: J17, J28, H56, H57, L84

Accepted Paper Series