The New Veterans

ABSTRACT A soldier who suffers a debilitating casualty on the battlefield is a wounded warrior. Awaiting that individual is a complex safety net, composed of public and private assistance. Should this same sense of obligation exist for private contractors working on a battlefield? The seemingly obvious answer is no. Contractors are temporary employees who profit from war. The purpose of this article is to challenge the assumptions that implicitly inform this issue and ultimately lead to a series of false choices. The type of service and the conditions in which it is rendered should govern the degree of public obligation. Putting on a uniform may matter more because of the greater underlying obligation that person is willing to make, but donning the uniform is not the sole trigger for societal obligation. Western nations have a level of unmet obligation to the contractors who have provided services on their battlefields.