Does this count as a market failure?

Commenter Happy Jack notes that Kroll Inc. has decided to stop providing security services in Iraq, following the deaths of four employees. AP paraphrases Michael Cherkasky, president and chief executive of Kroll owner Marsh & McLennan Companies, as saying that business in Iraq and Afghanistan "wasn't worth risking the lives of company employees."

Interestingly, the whole private contractor issue continues to boil over stateside. In the close race for Colorado's 5th Congressional District, Republican Doug Lamborn has been waving the bloody shirt at Democrat Jay Fawcett by tying him to Daily Kos' fabled Destroy All Mercenaries comment. Fawcett is trying to put some daylight between himself and the Kossaks, and turn the conversation around to his own service in the USAF. Lamborn, like many a GOP stalwart, knows it's more important to support the troops than to be the troops, which led to an amusing exchange where Fawcett questioned his lukewarm patriotism, and Lamborn responded Frank T.J. Mackey style, by quietly judging him:

During a later break, Fawcett questioned why Lamborn had never served in the military or Peace Corps; Lamborn looked back at him without answering. Fawcett told him that he'd "been stared down by better" and Lamborn replied: "I'm not intending to stare at you."

Fawcett/Lamborn has been a pretty entertaining negative campaign, with lots of "This scum-sucking pig is calling me names" road rage. Read all about it here, here, and here, because attack ads are good for you.