PMC / Mercenaries in Iraq (catch all)

[Abu Buckwheat]

No, he's wrong ... there are over 130,000 CONTRACTORS of all types in Iraq including 75,000 Iraqis. US combat forces stands at 160,000, unless I am mistaken.

[Ken White]

I have no clue if he's correct on the number of shooter PMC bods -- nor do I care. However, with 160K total troops plus or minus in country, nominal shooters or 'combat troops' will run about 33% -- or about 52K. Done another way there are about 30 Bn Cbt Tms plus other elements including some CS units serving as Inf so that puts the trigger pullers over 40K in all probability -- thus if Robb is right, he's wrong. Again.

[MountainRunner]

there are closer to 180,000 contractors there and upwards of 50k are security contractors. When Gen Shinseki suggested a few hundred thousand troops, we was surely assuming the force would be somewhat unified. He surely didn't imagine that over half of the force would be outside the command structure, virtual black boxes to ground commanders, and operating tactically willfully in many cases ignoring strategic consequences of their actions.

[Granite_State]

I have no clue if he's correct on the number of shooter PMC bods -- nor do I care. However, with 160K total troops plus or minus in country, nominal shooters or 'combat troops' will run about 33% -- or about 52K. Done another way there are about 30 Bn Cbt Tms plus other elements including some CS units serving as Inf so that puts the trigger pullers over 40K in all probability -- thus if Robb is right, he's wrong. Again.

Thanks, I figured the number (total military combat troops) couldn't be as low as 20,000.