Playing the Numbers Game

Lots of folks like to point out that there are as many contractors in Iraq as their are US soldiers. However, a recent Washington Post article points out that this is misleading. Though "the estimated 160,000 contractors of all stripes working in Iraq equal the number of war fighters," of those, "security contractors number about 48,000," or less than one third of the total number of contractors. This is not a secret army; most of these guys are truck drivers, cooks, translators and other support personnel aiding the US military. But you won't hear critics of the war or the Bush administration clarifying these sorts of details...