Were in their height, the number of private security contractors outnumbered the us troops. How did that come to be . Again, i think we are like that one of the unintended consequences of relying on the all volunteer force and allowing the country to slide into a condition of permanent war. We ended up with too much work, too few warriors and so policymakers and the pentagon turned to the notion of defense contractors to try to fill the gap. At a very high cost. At a very high cost and i would argue with little evidence that they that they were worth the money. I know youre going to stay around and sign some books i want to thank you, colonel, professor,. You know, we barely scratched the surface of this book, so i really encourage you to pick up a copy and you will have a very indepth although somewhat pessimistic understanding of the wars of the middle east. Thanks again. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] this is book tv on cspan 2, television for serious readers. H
Next a panel on pandemics featuring Karen Masterson and sonia shah who wrote pandemic tracking contagions, from cholera to ebola and beyond. Welcome, everyone, can you hear me . I am from the uva center for Global Health and i am delighted to be moderating this panel with two outstanding journalist and authors who are currently living in baltimore and came down to share their stories with us. We are going to be on a tight schedule which i am responsible for keeping. We will look forward to about 1520 minute presentation from each author and then ample time for questions. I would like to remind request that everyone silence their cellphone. I would also like to especially since i am so excited about this panel and all of the other events i would like to remind everyone that the virginia festival of the book is pleased to keep most events free. If you would like to help with that, please consider a donation. My third request is to please evaluate this session as the festival is always wo
Cragg Hines, former Washington bureau chief for Houston Chronicle, dead at 78 houstonchronicle.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from houstonchronicle.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.