A military not counted

About private armies:

In the first Gulf war, the ratio of private contractors to military personnel was one to sixty. This time it’s approaching one to one.

There are now as many as 48,000 mercenaries in Iraq, funneling income for the private military and security industry that reached $100 billion in 2004.

A bit of info about private armies here. A USA-centric essay of private armies in Mark Hemmingway’s “Warriors for Hire” cover story about private military contractors at The Weekly Standard, or follow his blog [now deleted markhemingway.com].

Re-posted.