Only a hair above a mindless robot on the evolutionary scale, mercenaries are an enigma of the past that have outlived their usefulness in modern society.
Theoretically…
The Soldier of fortune has always found a willing employer among the oppressors of the world.
Which is to say there is a world of difference between soldiering as one’s ‘civic duty’ and (uniform or not) ‘murder’ for fun and profit.
This particular ‘line of work’ is difficult for even the most hard-nosed Libertarian to defend. It is even, er, ‘awkward’ for a mere capitalist to ‘justify’.
It is one thing to fight for one’s freedom and quite another to murder for pay…although today’s ‘wars of choice’ sort of gloss over that distinction, making military service an extension of the ‘murder for pay’ business.
Worse, it puts our soldiers in the ‘we were just following orders’ box.
There is nothing more despicable than a war profiteer but we seem (thanks once again to the ‘fuck you, pay me’ system) unable to put a stop to this unethical, genocidal behavior.
Let’s pause for a moment and take a peek at what the founder of Blackwater is up to:
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Late one night last November, a plane carrying dozens of Colombian men touched down in this glittering seaside capital. Whisked through customs by an Emirati intelligence officer, the group boarded an unmarked bus and drove roughly 20 miles to a windswept military complex in the desert sand.
The Colombians had entered the United Arab Emirates posing as construction workers. In fact, they were soldiers for a secret American-led mercenary army being built by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of Blackwater Worldwide, with $529 million from the oil-soaked sheikdom.
Mr. Prince, who resettled here last year after his security business faced mounting legal problems in the United States, was hired by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign troops for the U.A.E., according to former employees on the project, American officials and corporate documents obtained by The New York Times.
See, this is the problem despots have and mercenaries are the only solution (at the moment, the robots are ‘coming along’ as we speak…)
It is difficult to order (even volunteer) soldiers to fire upon their countrymen. Fear of shooting a beloved relative or, just as bad, shooting the loved one of the guy standing next to you, tends to throw off their aim.
Foreign Mercs don’t suffer this handicap…the ‘protestors’ aren’t THEIR relatives.
Left to our ‘imagination is why ANY modern nation would condone (never mind supply) a mercenary organization within their borders?
It’s not too hard to imagine it is justified as not limiting a ‘man’s right to make a profit’ even if those profits come from murdering innocent civilians in foreign lands.
Sort of redefines the ‘service economy’ doesn’t it?
Worse, the ‘corporate owned media is so tightly muzzled that the only mention of this illogical, taxpayer funded boondoggle is how there are as many Mercenaries in Iraq as there were volunteer soldiers…
So, in case you were of a mind that the ‘corporate state’ wasn’t so bad, I urge you to think again.
Only a capitalist believes the commerce exists to enrich those who own it, ‘sane’ people know commerce exists to serve the needs of society.
Which is why I support the initiative to ‘redefine’ what is and isn’t criminal, relative to society as a whole.
The fight for freedom (from oppression) is never-ending.
It is not so much we aren’t asking the right questions as much as we have failed to hold the guilty accountable.
This is one of those ‘easier said than done’ predicaments.
It is, once again, no accident that the exalted founders ‘overlooked’ providing us with the tools necessary to put society back on track.
Now that the will to correct the problem is growing I have no doubt that a ‘solution’ will be found.
Thanks for letting me inside your head,
Gegner
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