Whereas Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Barack Obama, has announced his decision to send more troops to Afghanistan and that, as stated by the Pentagon, 68 000 men are already on the ground, new figures elaborated by journalist Jeremy Scahill paint a different picture.

According to the compilation of data gleaned from the Congress Research Service and the hearings of the Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight, it would appear that the number of men actually deployed by the Obama Administration to Afghanistan has already reached 189 000.

The breakdown:

Regular soldiers 68 000
Defence Department contractors 104 000
State Department employees and contractors 3 600
USAID employees and contractors 14 000
Total 189 600

Only one fourth of the contractors are of US nationality; half are believed to be Afghans and the other 25 percent originate from other countries.

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Report by Senator Claire McCaskill establishing at 104 000 the number of contractors employed by the Defence Department in Afghanistan:

titre documents joints


Memorandum by Claire McCaskill (Decembre 16, 2009).


(PDF - 263.5 KiB)

« Department of Defense Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan : Background and Analysis » (Congressional Research Service, December 14, 2009)


(PDF - 292.4 KiB)