AFSCME Privatization Update

Source: New York Times, October 1, 2007

There is, conveniently, no official count. But there are an estimated 160,000 private contractors working in Iraq, and some 50,000 of them are "private security" operatives -- that is, fighters. The dangers of this privatized approach to war became frighteningly clear last month, after guards from Blackwater USA, assigned to protect American diplomats, were accused of killing at least eight Iraqis, including an infant.

..... The lesson here is that such essential jobs cannot be outsourced. War is not a private business.