Senator McCaskill’s contracting oversight committee is questioning the extensive use of contractors in Afghanistan. The committee will be quizzing military and civilian officials. McCaskill says the United States should not make the same mistakes it made in Iraq with private contractors. She does not want to waste “truckloads and truckloads” of taxpayer’s money

McCaskill of Missouri says there could be twice as many contractors as soldiers in the new military surge. And she says some of the workers will be counterproductive. She says the military strategy is to get Afghans into place where they can take over their own security while their own police departments and their own military. But she says she has heard that private Afghan contractors are being paid more for jobs not related to their country’s security than they would be paid as soldiers and police officers.

McCaskill says she wants to make sure all necessary Congressional oversight is in place before the surge into Afghanistan begins.

Listen to McCaskill’s comments: 2:01 mp3  cascon5