OT: Privatized War

[sachmo]

Originally posted by alarikf:
Wouldn't they be "governed," albeit perhaps less strictly, by the ROE for the theater? I'm just thinking that it'd be awfully weird if they were allowed to go into theater and weren't briefed on the ROE in place, since that is a theater level decision and they'd be responsbile to/hired by the Combatant Commander, no?

quote:

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Originally posted by sachmo:
I don't agree. Since these security troops have basically no rules of engagement, the US military should stay as far from them as possible, lest they be dragged into the inevitable public relations nightmare that these mercs will find themselves in.

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From everything that I have heard, they seem to be supervising themselves. Very spooky stuff. For instance, and obviously I'm only going off of what I hear from the news reports, in the prison scandal, there is reportedly a case of a civilian contractor raping a male Iraqi prisoner. The military has no jurisdiction over this man, and has recommended that he be fired by the company he works for. Now, I'm not sure what else can happen to him, maybe the Iraqi government can arrest him? I don't know, but I think eventually, one of these forces is going to attack the wrong building, or shoot up the wrong car, or some other horrible situation will arise. I just can't see a good outcome to that, and our military would be wise to stay as far from that as possible.