CQ Roll Call reports that “President Barack Obama has stressed that the U.S.-led coalition fight against the Islamic State can be won without ‘boots on the ground.’ But it depends on who’s wearing the boots.”  

“Thousands of private security contractors, who played critical, below-the-radar and at times controversial roles in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, are being asked to consider joining this latest battle against Islamic extremists in Iraq and Syria and possibly elsewhere in the Middle East. What specific jobs they will fill, and which departments or countries will be paying for their services, remains to be seen. But the demand for their considerable and varied expertise is expected to be high, and that’s welcome news for both the contracting companies and politicians, according to policy advisers and industry experts.”  

“’I think Obama’s promise not to send ground troops to Iraq and Syria, combined with the threat there, incentivizes the administration to turn to contractors because there are such fewer political risks,’ says George Washington University law professor Laura A. Dickinson, author of ‘Outsourcing War and Peace: Preserving Public Values in a World of Privatized Foreign Affairs.’”