There is a dangerous distortion of language in discussing the Iraq War in addition to referring to torture by names like "harsh interrogation techniques." One of the most common deceptions that has been foisted on us is the use of the word "contractors" to describe mercenaries. However, whatever word you use, they are getting killed in Iraq.

From Swift Economics 8/28/09 (bolding mine):

The next major segment overlooked by the statistics is American contractors. The United States military has privatized much of its non-military operations, things it used to do itself. For example, soldiers used to handle food services, now that is contracted out to companies like Halliburton. The United States has had well over 100,000 contractors in Iraq at any given time since the wildly premature declaration of “Mission Accomplished.” So far, 1395 contractors have been killed in Iraq.

The numbers of US mercenaries in Iraq, and the numbers of them killed in the war of occupation are seldom mentioned by the corporate media. It's difficult enough to get them talking about the war in general these days, much less about this.

The war isn't just costing us hundreds of billions of dollars we could be using improving our public infrastructure and providing jobs at home. It has a dangerous hidden costs. Private armies like the company formerly known as Blackwater pose a significant national security risk. These national security risks are completely censored from corporate media sources.

Meanwhile, the mercenaries and our troops are dying and the Iraqis are still being slaughtered.