Although thousands of American troops already are in Afghanistan and thousands more are headed that way. But civilian contractors might outnumber them before long. Senator McCaskill has opened hearings to make sure this country gets the best bang for its buck.

McCaskill is still looking for the number of subcontractors working in Iraq and Afghanistan to supplement work done by military forces. She says the use of private contractors in Iraq “went wild”

She wants to know many contractors there will be in Afghanistan, what they’re paid, and whether the work they’re doing is effective.

A Congressional study says 26-to-56-thousand contractors could be in support of the troop surge. “I believe we will end up spending as much or more on contracting in Afghanistan as we spend on our military,” she says, “We have a huge obligation to try to get this right.”

She says it’s clear there will be far more contractors in Afghanistan than there will be troops. A

McCaskill says the use of natives of Afghanistan in contracted jobs is far greater than it was in Iraq. But she wonders if the salaries being paid for contractors to work for Americans are higher than the salaries paid to the Afghan military and the Afghan police. If that’s the case, she says, there’s little motivation for the Afghans to want to take over their own military or security responsibilities.

The entire committee hearing is available on the C-SPAN website:

http://www.c-span.org/Watch/Media/2009/12/17/HP/A/27430/Senate+Homeland+Security+Subcmte+Hearing+on+Oversight+of+Afghanistan+Contracts.aspx

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