Regarding Contractors (slightly off topic)
Has anyone read Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins?
It was after reading this book that I began to wonder exactly who these "civilian contractors" were who had been killed in Iraq a few years ago.
Mr. Perkins was an "engineer" for an international consulting firm (Chas. T. Main, Inc.--aka: MAIN) whose mission was to convince third world countries to accept massive loans for the purpose of infrastructure development. His particular job was to forecast large (but false) economic growth sufficient to justify the enormous amounts of the loans. He would demonstrate to the target government's officials that developing a given project would bring superior benefits to their Gross National Product (GNP).
US corporations (like Halliburton and Bechtel) would get the building contracts.
According to Mr. Perkins, the real purpose of the loan was not so that American companies would get contracts but for the country to be mired in debt to the point of practical enslavement to US interests.
Then, such countries would grant US corporations exclusive rights to natural resources (oil), permit US military bases within their borders, and allow their United Nations votes to be essentially controlled by the US.
This book gave me some perspective on why other countries might be wary of our "helping" them, and perhaps don't view us as benevolent.