The current count of Americans killed in Iraq is 548. According to The Economist, the number would be much higher if the military was not outsourcing the more dangerous jobs:
- What the figures suggest is that the number of attacks is going up even more sharply, though the number of potential American targets is going down as their force is reduced in size. Moreover, the American and British armies have hived off a lot of dangerous jobs (driving military vehicles, for instance) to contract workers, mostly Asian, whose deaths rarely get listed. The many British security companies in Iraq tend to hire people from Nepal or Fiji to guard bases. Another British-run company, Erinys International, now deploys 14,000 Iraqis to guard Iraq’s oil installations.[Emphasis added]
An internet search turned up nothing. If any readers have leads on this hidden component of the occupation, I would welcome some links.