"COALITION OF THE BILLING"

[SHRED]

It's hard to overstate the influence of private contractors on the Iraq War. Starting in 2006, contractors' employees in Iraq outnumbered U.S. troops, a previously unthinkable situation for the American military. By the end of 2008, at the height of the war, there were about 180,000 contractors' employees in the country, providing both military and reconstruction services, and 146,000 U.S. troops.

Contractors helped the U.S. government avoid implementing a draft by keeping troop levels artificially low. But they came with a high price tag. Between 2003 and 2008, Congress estimated that the United States had spent $100 billion on contractors in Iraq, or one dollar out of every five spent on the Iraq War at the time. Today, assuming a conservative estimate of $800 billion spent on the war, at least $160 billion has likely ended up in the coffers of private contractors.

The ties between members of the George W. Bush administration and leaders of some of the nation's biggest oil and defense contractors have been well documented, most notably the future Vice President Dick Cheney's lucrative tenure as CEO of oil services giant Halliburton

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/20/iraq-war-contractors_n_2901100.html


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The real reason for the illegal invasion of Iraq.

[Mnemosyne]

1. K&R nt