'Mercenaries' to fill Iraq troop gap

The New Scotsman reports that the UK government is negotiating contracts with private security providers to fill the gap that is being created by the reduction of British troops in southern Iraq.

The article does highlight an unforeseen trend- "But, despite expectations that the booming market for private security would go into decline following the bursting of the "Iraq bubble", firms have now been told to expect even more lucrative work during the "post-occupation phase". It is not entirely clear why they suggest that we are only now entering into the post-occupation phase.

Beyond some interesting statistics that give some dimensions to UK spending on PSCs, the article hits the same notes about outsourcing state/military tasks, the concerns of giving over such responsibility to private sector actors, etc.