number of contractors who have died so far

[Binarycow]

was just wondering how many contractors have died since the starts of those two wars, Iraq and Afghanistan? I googled and found these websites, wonder how reliable their estimates are:
http://www.unknownnews.net/casualties.html
http://www.dbacomp.com/News.html

 

[Nebor]

I would venture a guess that far more contractors have been killed than are estimated there, despite the fact that some of their other numbers seem wildly inflated.

I remember when contractors were teaching Afghan soldiers how to use m249 machine guns, and one of the Afghans turned the gun on the contractors, killing 3. I never heard a thing about it. I stopped getting emails from one of the guys, went out to the training site a couple months later and asked around to get the story. Contractors die or disappear all the time. It doesn't make the news, no one is counting them, and the big contracting companies like it that way and aim to keep it that way. They need bodies to fill those slots, because while it may seem like they're paying out the nose for truck drivers @ $120k a year, they're charging the government $300k a year through their contract.

 

[Whiskey16]

'Contractors' as including teachers (civilian orientated...not those to aim with cross hairs...damn, I meant that teachers could include those who teach land surveying, just not those to aim with cross hairs to lay a lethal round on target...having thought of US political ads, I had to edit and clarify...), food services, truck drivers, electricians, land surveyors, plumbers, and solidiers of fortune? Or just the latter who are more adequately denoted as mercenaries?

Political correctness silliness. If one is offended by the proper title of a chosen profession then find another career.

Never understood Yankee silly conflation with language....another term that makes me laugh = IED... Mines, people! The approriate and simple term of mines has worked quite well for centuries... D:

 

[Blackjack200]

Never understood Yankee silly conflation with language....another term that makes me laugh = IED... Mines, people! The approriate and simple term of mines has worked quite well for centuries... D:

Uhh, it's not precise? A claymore is a mine, but it is not improvised.

 

[Whiskey16]

Uhh, it's not precise? A claymore is a mine, but it is not improvised.

It went boom. Without post-explosion forensic investigation why be so 'precise' that the mine was an IED? Hell, a claymore certainly was at one stage improvised. This all comes down to where the production is being done and by whom.

The truth is that this is about conditioning of one's forces and then onto the masses. Language is a big part. Thereby we purchase our arms from brand name manufacturers yet they are so inferior that they must 'improvise' in a hut. Combat moral may be more effective if the opposition is portrayed to be inherently beneath your own.

Though, the great danger that invading militaries have long faced, is of the more resourceful insurgency proving to be more accomplished in the long-term strategy of attrition. Underestimating the opposition can lead to a strong decline from the peak in moral..... Already beyond one decade in Afghanistan and the USA ain't free of the upcoming resumption of a civil war in Iraq.

A mine is mine. Point being, the stand-in-all for any opposing explosion being an IED is silly and for the gullible.

 

[Triumph]

'Contractors' as including teachers (civilian orientated...not those to aim with cross hairs...damn, I meant that teachers could include those who teach land surveying, just not those to aim with cross hairs to lay a lethal round on target...having thought of US political ads, I had to edit and clarify...), food services, truck drivers, electricians, land surveyors, plumbers, and solidiers of fortune? Or just the latter who are more adequately denoted as mercenaries?

Political correctness silliness. If one is offended by the proper title of a chosen profession then find another career.

Never understood Yankee silly conflation with language....another term that makes me laugh = IED... Mines, people! The approriate and simple term of mines has worked quite well for centuries... D:

Eh, not really. A mine denotes something fabricated en masse by a military. Booby trap is a more apt word, but that was traditionally used when talking about anti personnel devices. I worked in the Army countermine realm for 7 years, not too many people insisted on calling IED's anything other than IED's.

 

[JTsyo]

It went boom. Without post-explosion forensic investigation why be so 'precise' that the mine was an IED? Hell, a claymore certainly was at one stage improvised. This all comes down to where the production is being done and by whom.

The truth is that this is about conditioning of one's forces and then onto the masses. Language is a big part. Thereby we purchase our arms from brand name manufacturers yet they are so inferior that they must 'improvise' in a hut. Combat moral may be more effective if the opposition is portrayed to be inherently beneath your own.

Though, the great danger that invading militaries have long faced, is of the more resourceful insurgency proving to be more accomplished in the long-term strategy of attrition. Underestimating the opposition can lead to a strong decline from the peak in moral..... Already beyond one decade in Afghanistan and the USA ain't free of the upcoming resumption of a civil war in Iraq.

A mine is mine. Point being, the stand-in-all for any opposing explosion being an IED is silly and for the gullible.

If you're looking for a mine you might miss an IED.

 

[Whiskey16]

Eh, not really. A mine denotes something fabricated en masse by a military.

Nope. The centuries old and continued used of mine is for a concealed explosive device to be remotely or pximity triggered against enemy personel, vehicles, fortifications, etc... Tunnels under walls or ramparts with loads of charges in medieval warfare, similar mines under trenches in WWI, to hidden explosives upon foot-trails or approahces are mines. An IED is a mine but an IED is now to be the US instigated common denotation for an insurgent mine. The introduction of the term IED is quite modern and directly sourced to recent US engagements. It has propogated from there to supplant the simple word of a mine. Silly, I say.

I worked in the Army countermine realm for 7 years, not too many people insisted on calling IED's anything other than IED's.

Cultural colloquialism. A deminer, eh? Full respect there in consideration with the mines that must now be dealth with. Business with an entity defining the terms will determine what the replying language will be. No surprise there.

Damn, this thread got hi-jacked a bit. Let's just come down and agree that diverging societies develop different language. That doesn't negate such language being open to mocking..

I am gonna now go out to the beach with some thongs on my feet.

 

[Binarycow]

back to the original question, my "contractors" would be what some others would refer to as mercs/private securities such as blackwater people. Wonder if they all will ever be accounted for considering the nature of their jobs. My speculation is that it's probably in the range of thousands easily just that not many make the news stateside.