Interested points, and while I have many friends who are contractors, I still have my concerns. Most are retired military (in my world), and while they are loyal to the unit they work with, there must be a friction between loyalty to the unit and to their contracting company at times? We're also putting ourselves in a position (probably already have) where a contracting (outsourcing company) like Brown and Root will have significant leverage in determining how we implement a particular strategy (no guys, we can't, or we don't want, to support that course of action, but if you buy our services for OEF-P, then we'll see what we can do). That said I don't think we can afford to go back to the old ways. There are some advantages for having contractors also. First you can hire experience (retired military), and second you hire continuity, the guy/gal can stay there for five years or so. That is value added in many cases.