It’s become increasingly apparent that official data on US military personnel deployed in so-called war zones overseas may be understating the actual number. Likewise, active duty military casualties account for only a portion of the American deaths suffered in Washington’s various overseas crusades in the last 20 years.

The principal mechanism for that statistical deception is the Pentagon’s growing use of “civilian contractors,” like the one killed in a drone strike targeting US military on a coalition base in eastern Syria last week.

https://www.zerohedge.com/military/syria-episode-shows-how-contractors-still-used-fight-americas-wars