The U.S. addiction to privatizing wars: Bernd Debusmann

By Bernd Debusmann

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Whether the controversial U.S. private security company Blackwater leaves Iraq or not, the United States is unlikely to shake its dependence on civilians fighting its wars anytime soon.

The superpower is too hooked on hired help.

Even if there were political will to stop using civilians for roles previously carried out by the military, it would take years to reverse a relentless trend towards outsourcing that began with the end of the Cold War and has accelerated since.

For the first time in its history, the U.S. is fighting a war with more private contractors than military personnel. The ratio in Iraq is estimated at around 180,000 to 160,000.

Contrary to popular perceptions, only about 2,000 are doing the high-profile protection work for which Blackwater is known.

Estimates of other "arms bearing contractors" vary widely, from 13,000 to 30,000. The vast majority of the overall contractor force are Iraqis and nationals of 30-odd countries who perform a wide variety of largely logistics jobs, from cleaning toilets to driving trucks.

In the words of Peter Singer, a leading expert on the private security industry, America's dependence on the private market "not only creates dangerous vulnerabilities but shows all the signs of the last downward spiral of an addiction."

The Army plans to grow its active force by 65,000 over the next four years and the Marine Corps by 27,000. But even then, the military will have to rely on private contractors in a war of the scale of Iraq.