LAT: Too many contractors in Iraq

How many contractors is too many? The LAT doesn't answer that but suggest that the number we have in Iraq is too many. According to the LAT, 21,000 Americans and 161,000 non-Americans are employed in Iraq as civilian contractors. The LAT emphasizes that the total is greater than the total number of American military. The LAT argues this proves that the U.S. went into Iraq with too small an army.

Apparently, the LAT believes the roughly 180,000 civilian contractors should be replaced by military people. But people should do what they're trained to do. The military is trained to fight wars, not to rebuild the infrastructure or supply food and medicine to Iraqis. For that matter, contractors are better equipped to provide support services to the military than the military itself. If contractors were not used, the total number of military would need to be much larger than it is presently and would need to include experts on the design and construction of aircraft, missiles, nuclear weapons, ships and submarines, hand guns, artillery, vehicles, tanks, computers and so on. It makes no sense to suggest that the military should not use contractors, but the LAT seems to think that.