I'm not sure why I start this off with an apology, but I know how some of you all are defending your work. In case you missed Stars and Stripes the sometimes independent newspaper of the Armed Forces, I am going to break down some of their stories they ran today. I am going to be brief, because I have to run. I am sure all the war watchers though, will find them significant.
Contractor deaths top 1,000 in war zone is a story by Joseph Giordono that is quite telling in many many ways. He provides us with some fascinating numbers on top of the grisly details of his report.
More than 1,000 contractors working for American firms in Iraq have been killed since the beginning of the war, while nearly 80 have been killed in Afghanistan, according to Labor Department statistics released late Tuesday.
Between January and June 2007, at least 231 contractors have died in Iraq, the report shows. The department has recorded 1,001 deaths since March 2003.
In all, at least 4,837 contractors in Iraq and 879 contractors in Afghanistan have been injured in the two wars.
First off, I was wondering if some kind soul might want to go and see if that information has been made public by the Department of Labor and perhaps posted on the internet? Giordono did not break it down into the nationalities of those killed, but the website icasualties.org does provide such data, but keep in mind that their's is incomplete. I can assure you though, that those casualties are spread from Peru to Romania, and cover all six continents. Iraq truly, is a Global problem, but certainly doesn't carry the international diplomacy one hoped for in the beginning. Thank You Mr. President for all your hard work.
For the mathematically curious this also has some interesting numbers.
U.S. military officials have said there are around 125,000 contractors working for the U.S. government and other agencies in Iraq — providing everything from security to food to intelligence reports. The Pentagon reported Tuesday that the number of servicemembers in Iraq has reached 162,000, the highest level of the war.
That's quite a large scale of numbers in case you hadn't noticed by now.
Closing note: There are quite a few other good stories on the linked website at the top of the page. Probably many of them could be turned into full page diaries in and of themselves. I wish I had time to plug the links, but feel free to do so in the comments. I will be back in about five hours time and might do so then.