The Privatization of Force
Old soldiers don't fade away, they are hired by PMC's (Private Miltary Companies) to fight in places like Iraq. They are used by nations like the US to do things that nations don't want to be accountable for and their operations are hidden from public scrutiny by a veil of both corporate and state secrecy.
Mercenaries have been used through the ages as a natural part of warfare and is probably as old as prostitution. Machiavelli warned about their use and said that a leader who achieves security of his state using them, would never be able to really be secure that those same men would not turn on him or be hired by his enemies. Yet prior to the Enlightenment when citizens became nationalistic and the central resevoire for soldiers, mercenaries were the main way that battles were fought. This was because of the enormous costs of maintaining a standing for-hire army. The US for instance never had a standing army until after WWII.
The modern US volunteer army has been been stripped to the bone in terms of being a lean, mean fighting machine. While that's good for moderate and short term engagements, it cannot hope to prevail over the long haul or when having to police a huge area such as they are expected to do now in Iraq. The result is that the US government has made it legal for PMCs, whose workers or "contracters",must do a lot of the work on their own without oversight from the US military. Because there are no real international or even national regulations governing the responsibilities or activities of these companies there have been situations not unlike Abu Ghraib that go unaccounted for. In fact some of the interrogators and translators, including one that is accused of raping a boy detainee, have never been charged because mercenaries in Iraq have complete immunity from Iraqi law under an edict issued by the US Coalition Provisional Authority.What using these companies in Iraq has amounted to is a form of war profiteering on a huge scale completely out of sight and accountibility of the American public. There are estimates that these 'security contractors", who patrol out of uniform in unmarked vehicles and armed with machines guns, account for as much as 20% of the US miltary presence in Iraq.
An article on the activities of PMCs in Iraq in the Washington Post commented:
The money to be made by these is enormous. It has been estimated that 25% of the $18.6 billion allocated by the Bush administration for Iraq’s “reconstruction,” is to pay for these private companies. Aside from that, the Bush administration does not count these hired troops in their causualty counts. Remember the four soldiers burned and mutilated and publicly hung from the bridge in Fallujah? Those were men hired by a secretive company called Blackwater that has about 450 personnel in Iraq doing various "security jobs" for US government. Americans reacted to the killings with outrage believing that these were American soldiers in our military, when in fact they were hired mercenaries who could have come from any nation and might have been perpetrating any sorts of horrors on the locals and for which they were killed. We simply don't know. Most of these companies are extreme tight-lipped about their personnel and most often do not even publicly report it when they are killed.
The problem is the lack of accountability and secrecy under which these firm operate. Mercenaries can provide an occupying nation with a supply of hired killers carrying out the dirtiest aspects of the occupation, from torture to assassination. To my mind, this is a serious situation that has been intensifying for some time now and needs intense public scrutiny.
Mercenaries have been used through the ages as a natural part of warfare and is probably as old as prostitution. Machiavelli warned about their use and said that a leader who achieves security of his state using them, would never be able to really be secure that those same men would not turn on him or be hired by his enemies. Yet prior to the Enlightenment when citizens became nationalistic and the central resevoire for soldiers, mercenaries were the main way that battles were fought. This was because of the enormous costs of maintaining a standing for-hire army. The US for instance never had a standing army until after WWII.
The modern US volunteer army has been been stripped to the bone in terms of being a lean, mean fighting machine. While that's good for moderate and short term engagements, it cannot hope to prevail over the long haul or when having to police a huge area such as they are expected to do now in Iraq. The result is that the US government has made it legal for PMCs, whose workers or "contracters",must do a lot of the work on their own without oversight from the US military. Because there are no real international or even national regulations governing the responsibilities or activities of these companies there have been situations not unlike Abu Ghraib that go unaccounted for. In fact some of the interrogators and translators, including one that is accused of raping a boy detainee, have never been charged because mercenaries in Iraq have complete immunity from Iraqi law under an edict issued by the US Coalition Provisional Authority.What using these companies in Iraq has amounted to is a form of war profiteering on a huge scale completely out of sight and accountibility of the American public. There are estimates that these 'security contractors", who patrol out of uniform in unmarked vehicles and armed with machines guns, account for as much as 20% of the US miltary presence in Iraq.
An article on the activities of PMCs in Iraq in the Washington Post commented:
“Far more than in any other conflict in United States history, the Pentagon is relying on private security companies to perform crucial jobs once entrusted to the military. In addition to guarding innumerable reconstruction projects, private companies are being asked to provide security for the chief of the Coalition Provisional Authority, L. Paul Bremer III, and other senior officials; to escort supply convoys through hostile territory; and to defend key locations, including 15 regional authority headquarters and even the Green Zone in downtown Baghdad, the centre of American power in Iraq.”
The money to be made by these is enormous. It has been estimated that 25% of the $18.6 billion allocated by the Bush administration for Iraq’s “reconstruction,” is to pay for these private companies. Aside from that, the Bush administration does not count these hired troops in their causualty counts. Remember the four soldiers burned and mutilated and publicly hung from the bridge in Fallujah? Those were men hired by a secretive company called Blackwater that has about 450 personnel in Iraq doing various "security jobs" for US government. Americans reacted to the killings with outrage believing that these were American soldiers in our military, when in fact they were hired mercenaries who could have come from any nation and might have been perpetrating any sorts of horrors on the locals and for which they were killed. We simply don't know. Most of these companies are extreme tight-lipped about their personnel and most often do not even publicly report it when they are killed.
The problem is the lack of accountability and secrecy under which these firm operate. Mercenaries can provide an occupying nation with a supply of hired killers carrying out the dirtiest aspects of the occupation, from torture to assassination. To my mind, this is a serious situation that has been intensifying for some time now and needs intense public scrutiny.
