OT: Privatized War

sachmo · #1 May 3rd, 2004, 07:01 PM

It's a very interesting situation, because it doesn't seem that the media makes a distinction between a civilian and a mercenary. Here in America, we don't handle civilian deaths very well. But would we be as shocked and outraged if we learned that the civilian casualty was in fact an armed peacekeeper who was armed and went knowingly into harm's way, for money?

Please note that I am not saying that there have not been innocent civilians killed in Iraq, on either side, but I personally make a distinction between security forces and private citizens.

capnq · #2 May 3rd, 2004, 07:26 PM

NGO = non-governmental organization, I think.

EvilGenius4ABetterTomorro · #3 May 3rd, 2004, 07:53 PM

Yeah, even though we all know their mercenaries now the media still says "civilian contractors". I also wonder why those Japanese civilians were there. Do I need to put quotes around civilian? Were they just being stupid? Were they putting pee pee in our Cokes?

AMF · #4 May 3rd, 2004, 08:00 PM

Well, the Japanese do an awful lot of NGO stuff - aid work, mostly. And, given that they have few if any "security" type consultants in Japan, I suspect they're just the run of the mill aid worker types.

Quote:

Originally posted by EvilGenius4ABetterTomorro:
Yeah, even though we all know their mercenaries now the media still says "civilian contractors". I also wonder why those Japanese civilians were there. Do I need to put quotes around civilian? Were they just being stupid? Were they putting pee pee in our Cokes?

Krsqk · #5 May 4th, 2004, 12:13 AM

Well, I found this little quote surprising:

Quote:

"Each private firm amounts to an individual battalion," said one U.S. government official familiar with the developments.

A battalion? That's quite a bit of firepower. I'm having a bit of trouble imagining the market demand for several battalion-sized private "security" forces (i.e., mercs). Somehow seems a bit too much like something I'd d/l from Baen.

[edit]I meant I have trouble seeing the demand that led many someones to say to themselves, "Self, you have much goods laid up for many years. Life will be boring now, so why don't you go recruit a bunch of old SpecOps personnel who still wanna fight and start your own mercenary battalion!"

[ May 03, 2004, 23:18: Message edited by: Krsqk ]

narf poit chez BOOM · #6 May 4th, 2004, 08:44 AM

Private security could be turned into the new governments army. In the meantime, the US army needs to back them up!

sachmo · #7 May 4th, 2004, 02:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
Private security could be turned into the new governments army. In the meantime, the US army needs to back them up!

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.