Government

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It used to be when you thought of an army, you would think that it was under the control of a country or tribal chieftain. Today there are many private armies that can be hired to do all sorts of things. There is no sense of patriotism among these troops, it is strictly working for the almighty buck, or whatever the currency happens to be. These men are also known as mercenaries. Where do these soldiers originally come from? As you would suspect, many are former military and were enticed by the pay, which can be rather good. One of the problems for companies employing these private armies in a war zone, is that they can be considered unlawful combatants by the Geneva Convention. Because of this, most are used in other ways. They protect things, much as guards and are often used as bodyguards. In the past they have been used by some governments to pilot gunships that were used to destroy Coca crops in Columbia.

Private soldiers are being used right now as bodyguards to protect the President of Afghanistan. One of the most famous or infamous of these companies, depending who is talking about them is Blackwater. Blackwater was founded in 1997. It was originally named Blackwater USA, but is now just Blackwater. By renaming this company and leaving out the USA, they did this country a big favor. Blackwater claims that they train over 40,000 people a year in what they state is the world's biggest tactical training facility. The training is not restricted to US citizens, but to anyone with the money to afford it. Some of these companies get most of their revenue from government contracts and many contracts are no bid. President Obama has pledged to do away with no bid contracts, so it will be interesting to see what happens with these companies.

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Some of these private companies that provide security and troops have fallen on disfavor with the governments in the countries that they are or were employed in. An example of this is Xe Worldwide which is just another name for Blackwater. It has been said that over 90 percent of its revenue is from no bid contracts and their presence in Iraq irked the Iraqi government so much that several attempts were made by that government to expel them, until they finally succeeded. Their license to operate in that country was denied for 2009. Why are some of these companies unwelcome? While I do not know everything that has occurred to make them unwelcome, I have heard that some of these companies are responsible for civilian deaths by firing at attackers indiscriminately and hitting civilians.

One of the big questions throughout the Bush administration was if we were financing any of these private armies and if we did, did we overpay because of non bid contracts? The answer has to be yes we used them and they overcharged. One of these guys got drunk, wandered through the streets of Baghdad and shot and killed a bodyguard for the Iraqi Vice President, Adel Abdul Mahdi. It is events like this that have helped to ruin the reputations of these security forces. Ten months later Blackwater guards were said to have killed 17 Iraqi civilians in a Baghdad traffic circle. On top of all this there were laws in Iraq that shielded contractors from prosecution. It turns out that they could just shoot anyone they wanted to without having to worry about the consequences.

A feud had developed between the State Department who used these private armies and the Pentagon. When the FBI investigated the incident, the Pentagon leaked out its own report that stated that Blackwater had no justification to have shot anyone. Military officers called them out of control cowboys and stated that they were alienating the very same Iraqis that the military was trying to win over. Even Robert Gates, the Secretary of Defense, stated that these military contractors are at cross purposes with the military. The State Department has replied that the military has long refused to supply protection for diplomats. Things had gotten so bad that Condoleezza Rice had ordered the Bureau of Diplomatic Security to send some of its elite SWAT force with every Blackwater convoy.

Will the rise of private armies continue, or will things change under the Obama administration? I think that I can say that if President Obama handles the question of these forces the same way as he is handling everything else, I think that we can expect to see these forces cut down and maybe not used by government agencies anymore. The government does have security forces such as the SWAT team I mentioned. It contains over 100 members and was practically unknown until it was sent out to watch Blackwater soldiers. It would only take the beefing up of these officers to establish an international force capable of protecting diplomats. Who knows, maybe this was even provided for in the incentive bill, after all it will require new hirings and thus job creation and in the long run be much more beneficial to the view of America by foreign countries than any of these private armies have been.