We use them all over the world, they are mostly vet's of our esteemed armed service. People who want to cash in on all those years of low pay working for uncle sam. The people who ran these companies, and Cheney removing them from being prosecuted for actions in war (though that seems to have slightly changed now), were the true vultures.
I am not saying that mercenaries are, straight out of soldier of fortune.... well, sort of, except they got a wife and kids at home who needs that check.
The Roll of private armies is basically discussed in the black and white format of are they good or bad, is it right to hire soldier that we pay more than our own. Who ultiatley owns the loyalty of a private army? Not The USA.
The CIA abused these people. Let them kidnap whoever the hell they wanted and try to pry information out of people aiding their enemies in Iraq. What with our private prisons, assignations (which are daily now that drone planes can be flown from South Carolina between lunch and an afternoon briefing).
We fed those mercenaries, in the beginning of the war, the idea that we were The Lord Of The Flies, torturing and beating and bombing our way through a terrorist threat, we told ourselves, against a rogue state hellbent on releasing nuclear flames on its enemies, including us.
I want to be able to examine war from all sides. Not glamorizing anything is the difficult part. I read a great quote about not being a leader last night, because everyone is a hero and it is unseemly to point it it out. So sane. I will get the exact quote later.
Captain Factor X was a poem I wrote that came to a be a call to arms to the computer generation, a shaking up people to the potential of what was happening around them, how the greatest tool democracy has ever seen is waking up and looking around with wonder, and a critical eye.
When I heard Black Water Changed to Xe, I wondered if they were part of the private army that protected me. I think I came out against Haliburton, because of Cheney. Perhaps Xe moved in on the big deal I was making out of using the letter X to declare yourself something undefined, new, unchained...
Such speculation leads nowhere, but other people know about his and surely wonder.
president Obama is sending in another 30k troops to fight the Taliban in Afganistan. The fighting is getting fierce there as we confront the enemy, with the help of Pakistan. I want to hear them say that they are going to destroy the Poppy Fields at any cost. Winning the war of hearts and minds, or middle-eastern goodwill, could go along way... countless indirect casualties could be avoided.
How can the use this relatively small number of troops to destroy the Taliban? Give the citizens a better deal and they will take it. A fair court, american mediated loans and aide for rebuilding the infrastructure that are rigidly free from the corruption of private industry, and perhaps backed by some American guarantees on future oil contracts?
I would like to start a company called WHEN THE WAR IS OVER. We could go in after hostilities have ceased, throw a bunch of peace and pot parties, fireworks, remind the people of their similarities, perhaps introduce Valium and anti-depressants to the water supply. The Loser of the war would have to pay for us. Oh, man, we could make some nice cakes shaped like the major battles. Have a meatloaf that looks like a dead soldier (just for laughs, because this event will be, of course, all about healing). Hell, we could come in with trees, restock the animals, find investors to get the farms going again, set up local banks, laws. NGO's all the way. Our place would not be to invent peace, but basically to cater to the party afterwards, and promote long term networking. Very Chic field right now, believe me...
I do not blame anyone for being a mercenary, working for Xe, whatever. They have their place in modern warfare. When Obama sends his 30 thousand more troops, that will require another 30 thousand in civilian support, and some of them will be private soldiers. They are fighting on our side, in the same war where we are sacrificing our young. Children of parents like any soldiers, husbands and brothers and .... you get the picture. The left has gone too far into criticizing these organizations, without looking behind the few they wish to demonize.. They are cooks and mechanics and mothers and sisters and...
There is something mechanical about the war now
a conveyor belt that picks kids up at the national guard armory
returns pretty wooden boxes with flags
brings on route speeches from loved ones
stunned by deaths young choice
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