Blackwater Mercenaries as seen deployed in New Orleans to help the military w/disaster.

With the costs of war climbing-- both in terms of the quantifiable: resources; and in terms of the unquantifiable: lives, psychological trauma, social unrest, etc-- influential and insignificant governments alike are becoming more attracted to the idea of outsourcing their military adventures.

The US, Britain, and other actors in the Middle East have taken to hiring out mercenaries to reinforce their exhausted military and security forces. Whether to employ these forces doesn't seem to be a difficult decision to make; there are many advantages: 1) you don't have to report their casualties, 2) you don't have to answer for their (war)crimes, 3) you don't have to train them, equip them, or manage them. All you have to do is pay them and issue orders.

These international corporate entities are fulfilling a need in the marketplace. Namely, they're supplying unpopular governments with adequately loyal and competent military forces to execute unpopular, and potentially illegal military maneuvers by any means necessary and all without adding fuel to any social unrest back in the home-country. These mercenaries can perform actions without approval from congress or any other popular check on military power (varies depending on your country-- in the US congress provides the check on the President's use of military strength in foreign lands). And they vanish from conflicts just as easily as they join them if the money stops flowing. They're mercenaries, of course that's what they do.

It could be argued with some success that in an all-volunteer army, such as the army the US maintains, every participant is a mercenary. But I think there are some significant differences between a 18 year-old who joined the US navy ostensibly to protect his country's freedom while saving up money for his education and a seasoned combat veteran with no particular allegiance, real or imagined, to any country, government, or special ideology excepting, of course, money.

I find it a little unnerving to know that my country is one of the major employers of these companies and that my tax dollars help to pay for their mostly unreported exploits. Their unaccountability is especially alarming to me. Some people argue that these mercenaries perform a valuable, needed service for their employers, and that whatever harm is caused by their use is more than made up for in the "good" of not being morally obligated to feel bad if any of them die pointlessly, or worse, commit war crimes in our name.

I don't think I can agree with that. The world court may not convict me of any atrocities Blackwater performs while helping US troops occupy and rebuild Iraq to US specifications; it may not convict any US citizen of the same practices-- but I can't ignore the fact that my government uses my money to employ Blackwater so that they can continue "democracy promotion" in Iraq without the consent or even necessary participation of the American people.

A brief research article written on this subject in 1999-2000:
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http://newarkwww.rutgers.edu/global/sanchez.htm

An editorial warning against the use of mercenaries in Iraq:
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http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/04/1651/