Contractors Die, Too

As we well know, our army of professionals needs a lot of backup. In the old days this backup was performed by fellow soldiers. Today the backup in Iraq and Afghanistan is done by civilians we employ; many - perhaps most - of them are not Americans. Since the wars began, 5,531 soldiers and 2,008 civilians have been killed. I suppose we should be thankful in some sense as these 2,008 (mostly not Americans) would probably have been American military deaths in the old days