A Privatized Army: soldiers or civilians?

A privatized military. It's happening. Companies like Blackwater USA provide "independent contracted soldiers" to the US government.

Let me go on a tangent for just a second to address the use of the word "mercenary." Blackwater employees are mercenaries. Regardless of the fact that the word mercenary has a negative connotation, they are. I'll support this assertion with several definitions: "a soldier hired into foreign service" (MW), "any hireling" (Randomhouse), or simply a "soldier fighting for money" (Encarta). Many Blackwater soldiers are recruited from foreign countries, predominantly those in Latin America; thus validating the first definition. Clearly, these soldiers are being hired by a company, which confirms the second definition. Lastly, I'm sure that there's no objection to the fact that Blackwater soldiers are paid (some more than the US Secretary of Defense). Now that I've justified my vernacular for this article, let's get to the actual story.

Approximately 150,000 United States soldiers are currently stationed in Iraq. Guess how many privately contracted soldiers are in Iraq. Around 130,000 mercenaries, dispatched by security companies who are usually controlled by a sole individual, are in Iraq right now. So far, there's not much of a problem, but this statistic may prove useful to you soon. Here's the problem: they are exempt from any law that might ensure that they are doing good. They operate, in whatever country they may have been dispatched to, with complete impunity. They were granted exemption from the court process in Iraq and immunity to all of their laws. The mercenaries can not technically be court mashalled, because they claim they're not really part of the US Military. But, they can't be sued or arrested either, because they claim they're part of the Military and exempt from the tether of civilian law. Wow. Did anyone just catch that? They bend the law to make it convinient for themselves.

All of this so far is bad, don't get me wrong, but it may not be reason enough to take action against these activities. Thus far, we understand that the mercenaries are operating overseas with immunity to domestic and international laws, conventions, and standards. However, here's when the serious problem comes up.

The mercenaries supplied by Blackwater USA and other independent contracting companies are operating here, in the USA. They've been seen in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, wielding high-powered assault rifles and tooling around in unmarked cars to "confront looters." So, now these mercenaries are operating with impunity within our borders. This, my fellow citizens, is not a good thing.

The wonderful leadsership of Blackwater is displayed through the eloquent quotes of it's second-in-command man, Cofer Black. An order he gave to a field-team while he worked for the CIA sounded something like this, "When you find Osama, hack his head off with a machete, put it in a cardboard box on dry ice and send it back to me so I can present it to President Bush."

The negative implications of having a "shadow army" like this are quite obvious. First and foremost, the mercenaries' allegiance and loyalty is to the money, not to the country. Theoretically, if a foreign country offered to pay these fighters more, they would switch sides. This having proven the fact that they're not trsutworthy, we are led to the second negative aspect of this army. Immunity and Exemption. The fact that the security companies twist the laws around to work for them in the situation they're in is simply wrong. They're immune from foreign as well as domestic laws and court procedures and therefore have nearly no motivation to do good. Finally, our own Congress does not even know what these mercenaries are doing. They have been stonewalled and have no access to crucial information such as death tolls, number of mercenaries wounded, or even their current missions. This needs to be stopped.

Why don’t more Americans know about this? Well, that's pretty easy to answer. Think about it. Honestly, what kind of "shadow" army would want their personal affairs broadcasted on the news? They wouldn't. Unfortnately, they have enough connections and lobbyists to ensure that. Because of this, it is your duty to educate yourself on this matter. I encourage you to look into this issue further by purchasing books such as Blackwater by Jeremy Schaill, watch his speech about this issue on YouTube (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4), check out documentaries like Shadow Company, and write to your congressmen and representatives.

Thanks for reading. Below I've included a video of Jeremy Scahill's testimony in Congress. Feel free to watch it.