More than 5,200 soldiers have died in the two war zones, meaning that one civilian contractor has died for every three soldiers — a ratio that reflects the unprecedented degree to which the Pentagon has outsourced the work of war. Civilian contractors make up  about half the total U.S. forces in the war zones and they have been deployed on the front lines far more than any previous U.S. conflict . Iraq and Afghanistan are the most outsourced wars in U.S. history.

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