When, in 2005, I first wrote about the private security contractors working for us in Iraq, there were about 25,000 of them. Now, there are almost 200,000, which is more than the number of troops. The extra nasty part of this is that the Army is not prepared three years later to manage these contractors.
In 1990 they had five general officer positions for managing contractors; today they have zero. The number of soldiers devoted to purchasing dropped by 25% between 1990 and 2000. Not only are there fewer contracting people, they are likely less qualified as only half of them "are certified for their current positions".
This lack of oversight is one reason why about 18% of the reconstruction contracts in Iraq are 'either questionable or cannot be supported because of a lack of contractor information needed to assess costs".
I'm glad we have a professional Army. How could draftees deal with such complex issues?
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