(Notes from a lecture by Erick Lever) There are so many people who are profiting economically from the war in Iraq. Obviously, the weapons manufacturers, the military contractors and the corporations reconstructing Iraq benefit. However there are others who surprised me, such as citizens who hold stock in the companies involved in the war and all of the US citizens and citizens around the world who benefit from the money being injected into the economy by the US war spending. A little bit harder for everyone to claim innocence when we are all benefiting, directly or indirectly. The military contractors are private corporations who have taken over jobs the military use to do such as feeding soldiers, building houses, loading bombs, guarding bases and interrogating prisoners. There are over 20,000 contractors in Iraq today working for over 50 companies. The ratio of soldiers to contractors in the first Gulf War was 50:1, in the current war it has decreased to 10:1. The contractors from the US make 3-5 times the amount of money soldiers in the US military make, although contractors from other countries don’t make nearly that much. So why has the US started using so many private contractors? During peacetime the US military started downsizing and got rid of the military personnel first because it was an easy place to cut costs (much easier than getting rid of bombs). Then when the war started there weren’t enough people in the military to cover all of the jobs. In addition, contractors fall outside of US law and International law and so the US doesn’t have to take responsibility for their actions (Abu Ghraid prison). Also because they don’t work for the US government (they work for companies hired by the US) the US doesn’t have to get involved if they are killed in the line of duty. There are obviously a lot of serious problems associated with the increasing use of private contractors though. There is no common training program for the contractors as each company does their own training. There is a loss of morale in the military when soldiers see people doing the same job as them but getting paid 5 times as much. The contractors tend to be some of the most violent people in the field because they fall outside of the law and outside the watch of the military. There is also a lack of communication between the US military and the contractors, meaning they can’t help each other.