This is interesting:
This week's crash of a civilian cargo jet at Bagram airfield in Afghanistan highlights the fact that the U.S. military relies on a private air force to move enormous amounts of supplies and numbers of people around the globe.
It's part of a trend of private warfare, you know.
These contractors allow for flexibility to meet temporary demand without expanding the core force or for routine missions that don't require the training and dedication to operating under fire that our uniformed forces provide. In the long run, this saves money.
Contractors also improve our ability to fight and win by essentially taking casualties off-line. The public just doesn't get worked up over contractor casualties (except to say "screw them" like they were the enemy rather than fighting for us) as opposed to military casualties, thus extending the time we can fight and achieve victory.
