"Percent of the Defense Department's 2008 budget devoted to contracts and grants: 82" - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

"Estimated value of Defense Department contracts in Afghanistan awarded to Texas-based Fluor and Virginia's DynCorp: $7.5 billion" - Steven Perez

"Amount Fluor's PAC contributed to federal candidates in 2008: $305,499" - Steven Perez

"Amount DynCorp's PAC contributed to federal candidates in 2008: $51,999" - Steven Perez

"Date on which a financial analyst announced that Fluor and DynCorp stood to benefit from deployment of additional troops to Afghanistan: 12/2/2009" - Steven Perez

"Amount by which Fluor's share prices rose in that afternoon's trading: 33 cents" - Steven Perez

"Amount by which DynCorp's share prices rose: 30 cents" - Steven Perez

"Month in which DynCorp disclosed in a regulatory filing that it had made payments to expedite visas and licenses, potentially violating the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: 11/2009" - Steven Perez

"The estimated total for these illegal payments: $300,000" - Steven Perez

"Date on which an investigation was announced on behalf of DynCorp investors over possible securities law violations by the company: 12/3/2009" - Steven Perez

"Value of a U.S. contract with DynCorp to train Iraqi police that federal auditors said was so mismanaged they were unable to determine how the money was spent: $1.2 billion" - Steven Perez

"Year in which the U.S. Commission on Wartime Contracting is scheduled to release a comprehensive study of contracting in war zones: 2011" - Steven Perez

"Number of private contractors working for the U.S. in Afghanistan as of September 2009: 104,101" - Steven Perez

One more: "Percent of the U.S. presence on the ground during the Vietnam War accounted for by contractors: 13". "Percent of the Defense Department's workforce in Afghanistan accounted for by contractors: 57" - Steven Perez

Thanks for posting this, Steven. - Michael R. Bernstein

The greatest return on investment today is in a politician. - Andrew C (✓) from Android

Reminds me of the time Pop did contract work for Fluor when we lived in Houston. Fluor wanted to send him (and the rest of his family with him) to Saudi Arabia for an unspecified amount of time, possibly years, prior to the first Gulf War. Needless to say, Pop turned it down, in spite of the obscene amount of money and offer of free travel around Europe they threw at him. So, yeah, they've been at this sort of thing for quite a while. - Steven Perez from IM

You have to privatize and outsource war when the army is too small too stretched too broken to perform the mission. Problem is you hire mercs to protect the bases and natives to drive the trucks delivering the food and bullets and more natives to serve teh meals and on and on to stretch a tiny professional force well past the breaking point - welcome to all volunteer all the time - WarLord