As many as 56,000 military contractors will join the additional 30,000 troops being deployed to Afghanistan, meaning that by next year there could be 130,000 to 160,000 contractors deployed alongside 100,000 US soldiers. Appearing on MSNBC, Jeremy Scahill argues that as the Afghanistan escalation ramps up, President Obama is “surpassing Bush-era level of reliance on…for for-profit war corporations.” Asked about problems with oversight, Scahill cited his recent reporting on The Nation that the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction has even outsourced oversight of corporations to a corporation, Deloitte and Touche.

Calling military contractor activity an “accountability free zone,” Scahill argues that Obama has “paid lip service to oversight and cracking down” while he’s actually expanding the use of contractors. “Without the draft, these wars wouldn’t be possible but for hiring these private contractors,” says Scahill.