These are some very serious numbers you mention here. Just take a look at this TED talk - just $8 billion to halve the number of people without access to drinking water.
Imagine what can be achieved with hundreds of billions, if used constructively.
$100 billion on contractors? wow
Why can't the US military increase the pay for the soldiers, hire more soldiers and reduce the number of contractors? These contractors are in it just for the money, don't have any respect for laws/human life as blackwater has repeatedly demonstrated.
They should really think twice, thrice before starting any war, and especially an unnecessary one.
"Why can't the US military increase the pay for the soldiers, hire more soldiers and reduce the number of contractors?"
Soldiers aren't paid very much directly, but the indirect costs are huge, including at least room and board, training, and future benefits including medical care (via the VA system, currently almost $113 billion/year).
Quickly Googling for estimates of the cost gives answers between $350,000 and $400,000 per soldier per year.
So, to answer your question, we don't because it'd cost more.
http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_pritchard_invents_a_water_f...
Imagine what can be achieved with hundreds of billions, if used constructively.
$100 billion on contractors? wow
Why can't the US military increase the pay for the soldiers, hire more soldiers and reduce the number of contractors? These contractors are in it just for the money, don't have any respect for laws/human life as blackwater has repeatedly demonstrated.
They should really think twice, thrice before starting any war, and especially an unnecessary one.