The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) will release a report later today showing that the federal government has paid private contractors $100 billion since the 2003 Iraq invasion. The report will place “the first official price tag on contracting in Iraq and [raise] troubling questions about the degree to which the war has been privatized,” according to the New York Times. Between 2003 and 2007, the U.S. government awarded $85 billion in contracts for services ranging from security to construction to food preparation to translation. At the current pace, contracts will exceed $100 billion by year’s end, a figure that might be low, given the chaotic state of contracting during the Iraq War’s early years. There are currently at least 180,000 contractors working in Iraq, far outnumbering U.S. troops in theater.
