Death. It?s always there in Iraq. The danger doesn?t go away. More than 646 American civilians have been killed in Iraq since 2003, according to the U.S. Labor Department, 68 of them in the past three months. Another 196 U.S. government civilian employees have died in the country since 2003, eight of them in the past three months.

Roadside bombs, enemy ambush, helicopter crashes and heart failures have contributed to the death toll that has some in the business world second-guessing themselves and wondering if the profits are worth the price.