When I began my work life, the outsourcing trend was picking up steam in the United States. I no longer recall who it was, but some guy allegedly produced the idea of using the phone book to break up his company. If he could find a company that did a task currently done in-house, he outsourced that task to a vendor. That was probably apocryphal, but it was a useful story. Why do something in-house when there was a local specialist, who could do it better and probably cheaper than you?
To a point, it made a lot of sense. Why would a baker own a fleet of trucks when he can lease them from a company that is expert at maintaining delivery trucks? The baker can focus on his specialty and the truck repair people can more efficiently maintain the bread trucks. Even in cases where there is no direct savings, outsourcing allows for a greater focus on core competencies. Whether or not this is true is debatable, but it is something you heard a lot in the 90’s as companies unbundled themselves.
This was also the driving force behind Al Gore’s project to “reinvent government” by moving tasks from the Federal workforce to private contractors. There was a book published in 1993 that was the text book for government reformers. All over the country, private firms now exist to serve one customer – the government. There are firms around the Imperial Capital that exist solely for the purpose of fulfilling a specific contract. Once the contract expires, the firm will be dissolved or “reinvented” for a new contract.
Of course, there is another aspect to government outsourcing that is different from private outsourcing. In the private sector, the baker can be good at maintaining his bread trucks, if he chooses to put the energy into it. Government is rarely good at anything, so off-loading work to the private sector promises to get around the bureaucracy, especially when it comes to things like work rules. In theory, the government contractor is free to do what is necessary to get the job done, while government is tied down with endless red tape.
This sounds good, but it has curdled into something sinister during the communications revolution. Big tech companies now police speech on-line, doing what government cannot legally do itself. Human resource departments evolved to enforce workplace conduct rules that the state cannot easily enforce. The government cannot tell the males to be nice to the girls at the office, but they can threaten to sue the company for maintaining a hostile workplace, so the company does the state’s bidding.
Now we are about to see this concept taken to the next logical step, as the Trump administration prepares to outsource the war in Afghanistan. The plan is to have contractors like Blackwater, take over the logistics of fighting the Taliban. They would provide an air force and thousands of “contractors”, who would develop and lead militias made up local tribesman. The “contractors” are former soldiers. We used to call these guys mercenaries, but that term has fallen out of fashion for obvious reasons.
The article frames this as a cost saving move, but the most likely reason to consider doing this is the contractors can do things we no longer allow our military to do. Blackwater can also recruit a militia from whatever local forces they like, which probably means the most ruthless killers available. Put another way, there is a realization that the US military has become an inefficient and clumsy giant of a bureaucracy, just like the rest of the federal government. Blackwater will be more efficient at executing this never ending war.
This is not without precedent. Governments have relied on private armies and private security forces since the dawn of time. The American West was often policed by hired guns, simply because they were available and willing to take the work. The Pinkertons were a security force used by the government and rich men. Lincoln used them for his personal security. The railroad used them to infiltrate the Molly Maguires and they were used in the famous Homestead Strike. Guns for hire are not new to America.
Still, this is a bit different and looks like another facet of the modern Servile State. Just as the state has outsourced its coercive functions to private companies, it is now outsourcing its violence to a private company. If Trump goes in for this, you can be sure that a hundred other firms will spring up with plans to do paramilitary work around the world on behalf of the US government. That is the thing with outsourcing. Supply has a funny way of creating demand where none existed. Private war will now get its own SIC code.
Eisenhower famously warned about the military-industrial complex and he has been proven right. The Cold War was used to justify endless spending on the war machine. Then it was terrorism. Now we have an empire to police, in addition to the millions of hostile foreigners our government imports into our lands. There is always some reason to keep shoveling trillions into the war machine. Now the war machine will have libertardian economists singing its praises as an efficient new innovation.
This is not a new problem. The Romans had this problem with their own armies, as well as the Praetorian Guards. America is not in danger of the military seizing control of the state or making demands on the civilian rulers. That is because the global corporations got there first. Those same corporations are now taking over the policing and war making roles of the state. In the custodial state, the throne and alter will be divided once again, with the state serving as the altar and global oligopolies as the throne.
It seems as much of the alt-right is luddite in the sense that they think that technology will somehow go away and we will go back to, say, a 1920’s or 1950’s life. Of course this is not going to happen. Technology is here to stay and will only become more advanced. To me, the most likely “dystopian” scenario, if you call it dystopian, is the “Snow Crash” scenario, which is a highly privatized, decentralized cyberpunk scenario.
Since the alt-right is primarily about autonomy from the cultural leftists, one would think that alt-right types would embrace a “Snow Crash” scenario with welcome glee! After all, it is positive sum – everyone gets what they want – and that is always a good thing.
Late to the show, but what the hell.
I was just looking into my step-mother’s family, and this post reminds me of her brother, who was a “contractor” for the CIA during the Bay of Pigs operation. I don’t really understand what that term is supposed to mean (I guess you could reject responsibility for them that way, like Mr. Phelps), but he and some other “contractor” were captured by the commies and executed three days later. The other guy’s daughter eventually became a journalist, and around 2000 she wrote an article in a FL paper that sufficiently pissed off the commies that they dug up her father’s remains and tossed them into the ocean. At the same time, they decided to do the same with the remains of my step-mother’s brother (I think the graves were unmarked, so maybe they had to desecrate both in order to make sure they were desecrating the right one).
Anyway, the point of the story is that “contractors” (and mercenaries) get no respect.
The key is to not be involved in any action where hiring mercenaries seems the better option.
Outsourcing some support functions does not bother me though.
We may go from being a country with a condottiere to a condottiere with a country.
Yes, the libertarians are daydreamers and not based in a practical reality. But let me know when anyone from the Mises Institute (the only libertardians who count) sings the praises of the cost savings of Mercenaries in Afghanistan and I’ll eat my hat.
“Yes, the libertarians are daydreamers” but they aren’t the only ones…
Afghanistan is a lost cause. Leave. If warlords and their minions want to contract with Blackwater, make that a strictly commercial transaction between the parties with no U.S. guarantees.
“This sounds good, but it has curdled into something sinister during the communications revolution. Big tech companies now police speech on-line, doing what government cannot legally do itself. Human resource departments evolved to enforce workplace conduct rules that the state cannot easily enforce.”
The foregoing fits the classical definition of fascism, as practiced by Benito Mussolini – who once stated that he wished his creation had been named “corporatism” instead of fascism for the seamless manner in which it combined the state and the corporation.
“All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state” – Benito Mussolini’s famous description of fascism, is now well-known. Isn’t it striking how closely it describes the present-day symbiosis between the federal leviathan and the multinational corporations?
Jerry Pournelle addressed much of this 30 years ago as he was developing his Co-Dominion future history: mercenary armies, Blacks & poor Whites permanently in Welfare Islands, US & Russia in bed with tech companies to suppress both competition & R&D. Clever guy.
Mr. Zappa has been proven correct: Politics is the entertainment division of the Military Industrial Complex.
Mercs have one benefit over regular forces. They are fungible. If some get killed it won;’t even make the back page of the NYT. It’s only when they are complete idiots and cowboys like the Blackwater goons in Fallija that got capped and torched for their innate stupidity and eventually cost us a lot of dead soldiers.
Outside of that, they cost a lot more than a well trained Marine. about x5 the cost. Also the we the taxpayer pays for all their training which they get in the service. Xie and others just poach them and get the benefit of their experience.
I’d support their use under one condition. That the Army, AF or Marines don’t have the bail the SOB’s out when they get in over their head. Let them die. It’s just not worth it for us to bail; them out because it encourages bad behavior on their part.
Rod;
Your proposal guarantees that there will be absolutely nobody signing up.
Probably time to go re-watch “The Man Who Would Be King”
This is one of those columns where it’s hard to know where to start because I spent 10 years in uniform and another 10 years as a contractor for the Federal Government at a large Defense/Intelligence company. I wrote the employee evaluations for upper middle managers in Honolulu…the office Ed Snowden worked out of. I’d say “Ed Snowden worked for Booz Allen,” but if you know anything about the contracting world, Booz was just a black and white BAH lanyard, a neck tie (if they ever even required one in Honolulu), and the company that signed his paychecks. The company is just a pass-through. If the company loses the contract, guys like Snowden just show up at the new company wearing a different lanyard a few days later. One of the biggest problems the contractors have is prior to a major contract re-bid, and that is all their staff start getting job offers or poached away outright. According to the FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulations) “personal services” (i.e. hiring your buddy, or specific person) is illegal. But everybody knows that is a sham.
The contractors are audited, and there are rules in place governing them, which make it very difficult to say they can break the employee rules that the Government cannot. Sure, there is a little more flexibility. But the real reason the government outsources to contractors is that they don’t have to pay their benefits/pensions. The multiple on a small business, low overhead, contractor might be 1.1 or 1.2 (or even less). In Government, the multiple is x5. So, I can hire a contractor for a $200,000 salary, give him a thin set of benefits, and take 8% profit, and that contractor employee only “costs” the government $237,000. Not only can I not pay a government employee quite that much, even if I could at a x5 multiple for the pensions and benefits, that government employee “costs” well over $1M.
I used to get teased by the Air Force guys because I had a nice car, and they saw my bill rates (which is not my actual take-home pay), and assumed I was rolling in dough. I made a lot of money, to be sure, but the ignorance of your average government employee means they think they’re cheap and I’m expensive even though it was the other way around by a hefty margin.
The other benefit of using contractors in mercenary roles is the War Crimes Tribunals are usually pretty short, and nobody in uniform winds up on the front page of the NYT for shooting up a village.
The contracting world is a huge fraud. The contracts are fraud. The idea that these contractors aren’t actually government employees is fraud…most of these big companies are just pass throughs. There is a huge amount of corruption the flies below the radar. Contracts under $5M don’t get a lot of scrutiny, so the lower level govvies learn how to rig contracts and build their way up to the Big Show.
I left that world 7 years ago this summer, and never looked back.
Thanks for the insights.
‘This sounds good, but it has curdled into something sinister”
I feel like the sentence fragment explains the whole world right now
Once the nukes start flyin
We all gonna be dyin
Except for the (((roaches))) who crawl out afterwards.
As a man once said, the human race divides itself politically into those who want to be controlled and those who don’t. That ratio appears to have been weighted to the point of no return. People do love being herded, whatever they might say, more all the time. Google is just the vehicle for the brave new world to secure itself. A school of fish, it should be admitted, is a work of art.
“A man” = Lazarus Long, an “author avatar” of sorts for Robert A. Heinlein.
best movie with/about mercenaries I know of is “Dogs of War”
It’s hard to strike fear in the heart of the enemy with the effete powder puff brigade of transgenders, and even harder to put them back into the Pandora’s Alinsky toolbox from whence they came. The wilting lillies must be removed from the battlefield to insure the safety of the others.
Excerpt from Julian Assange’s forthcoming book on Google. The most surprising aspect of the article is how naive Assange was about Google as late as 2013.
https://wikileaks.org/google-is-not-what-it-seems/
Google is the NSA and the NSA is Google. One has to be modestly insane to use Google products.
And seriously off the grid to actually avoid Google. The Goog is woven into almost every smart device out there.
I have always thought a device and operating architecture wholly independent of Google would sell like hotcakes and be a good thing. But I am sure the powers that be would nix that idea, one way or the other. Besides, if you go to just one mainstream site, you just might open the door for Google entry into your system. At least that is my understanding of how things work.
Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can set me straight on this.
This becomes even more significant when we learn that Julian Assange has just offered James Damore, the recently fired Google employee a new job with Wikileaks.
I’m not a historian, but I could swear they tried something like this in the Sixties. Bay of Pigs, was it? Give the CIA credit, though — their outsourced war finally got Castro with a dastardly new superweapon, code name EXTREME OLD AGE. I expect this will work at least as well.
Damn those Norks! The fecundity of that Kim family defeats the “old age” strategy. Maybe anti-aircraft gun proliferation will do something.
Not mentioned was one custom of war that may be of interest. Professional military organizations have a custom of executing captured mercenaries on the spot. One of those “usages of war” things. Thus, those considering a career as a mercenary need to be good at what they do, lest they experience a short tenure.
Well, summary execution of ‘unlawful combatants’^ *was* the custom and merc’s not in uniform might well have fallen into that category in the past. But we unilaterally gave that up for the GWOT (global war on terror) and instituted ‘catch & release’ instead.
Of course, our opponents have no such scruples so your point that any prospective merc better be good still stands.
^A ‘lawful combattant’ carries arms openly, fights in a distinctive uniform under command of a superior officer for a belligerent state per The Geneva Convention.
There’s a number of very real problems that warrants the use of mercs, Z.
We have the very real problem that moslems in general and the Talibangers in particular – are animals. These goat feltching fig farmers still literally live in caves in some communities of Afghanistan. There is no rule of law outside islam and half the monkeys that practice it can’t read or reason. Yet they are killing us and our women and children in real time every day. They are attacking us, our legitimate interests and legal investments, and our like-minded allies that just want to work their 8 hours a day and go home – to a home – and family. They are organized, they have an agenda, and an infrastructure to raise funds and support their efforts. They are a ready supply of useful fools to a market filled with low men that will eagerly pay to expend them and use them for their own purposes.
But our law does not know how to deal with all this. Because the judiciary is infested with lib and prog-tards, they can’t even decide whether a mudflap terrorist is a uniformed military combatant or a garden variety murderer – and very different laws apply to each. In the case of Omar Khadr the Canadian judiciary got it’s panties in a twist over the child-soldier aspect. Our gov’t settled out of court with him for $10.5 million dollars because of all the pain and suffering he endured in prison. He was taken prisoner on the battlefield when he was 15, and had just lobbed a grenade that killed one American and blinded another. Obviously our laws don’t work on them and probably never will. Obviously our gubbiment doesn’t work, and our judiciary has fallen too.
I personally LIKE the idea of people like Khadr being shot and killed on the battlefield and left for the crows. I also like the idea of killing moslems in their own lands rather than here. If Trump’s mercs are gonna do that… I don’t see a downside.
The one way to solve the Afghanistan problem would be to declare victory and leave. Afghanistan is called the graveyard of empires for a reason.
The grave goods are enviable.
https://www.livescience.com/47682-rare-earth-minerals-found-under-afghanistan.html
You wonder if part of the calculus is “we do it or the Chinese do it”. Given their near monopoly on certain parts of the rare earths trade what would a monopoly on the same in Afghanistan be worth?
Whatever the Russian market will bear.
I’m not sure we agree on the term ’empire’. If we can’t trade because some moslem monkey insists on flying planes through our sky scrapers – if I can’t flop out on my sofa and eat potato chips and watch TV because some moslem ‘militant’ exploded on my kids’ school bus – you can’t declare a victory.
Now – if you send a handful of mercs to kill the assholes responsible? “You da man!!!” It works for everyone: no lefty f-nozzles blood dancing on flag draped coffins of our servicemen, and because liberals hate corporations – they won’t meddle in the affairs of companies like Blackwater. That means you won’t get some cankle blossom like Hillary Clinton or Stretch Pelosi interfering with logistics, deployments, target prioritization or rules of engagement – all that BS goes out the window! Plus – no more expenses trying to ‘win the hearts and minds’ of shit skinned morons that don’t have such organs.
There’s just too much win in this for us and Trump NOT to use mercs. It’s a fascinating situation. I will be watching with interest.
“…If we can’t trade because some moslem monkey insists on flying planes through our sky scrapers…”
This is complete nonsense. The third building to fall on 9-11, building 7 fell the same speed as a rock dropped in air for roughly 108 feet. Since there’s only two variables here, gravity and the resistance to the object falling (in this case air), this means that building 7 was held up by air as it fell equally. Well we all know the building wasn’t floating in the air. The ONLY reasonable explanation is the bottom floors were removed(demoed) somehow so that the resistance to the building falling was the same as air. Gravity of course acting the same on both the rock and the building.
It’s equally obvious that a group that presented a position paper declaring it fortuitous that the Arab states in the middle east be broken up, owns practically all the media in the West so they can ignore the obvious and had agents around the area and even filming the WTC on the day of the bombing were the ones that most likely did this. The Jews.
I could go on about this but if you wish to argue about it explain building 7…first.
“…if I can’t flop out on my sofa and eat potato chips and watch TV because some moslem ‘militant’ exploded on my kids’ school bus…”
Don’t let them in. Stay away from them. Build a fence.
Borders and vetting work.
No one from that region, no one we even think is a Muslim enters the US and our problem drops by a huge margin.
Its also a lot cheaper and less risky but what it isn’t is more profitable for an elite heavily invested in perpetual war and worse it would require them to take actual responsibility for actions
That inability for anyone in leadership to take responsibility and the crucifixion of anyone dumb enough to be honest and take responsibility is a huge part of the problem.
They were much happier when they were focused on killing each other and using goat heads for soccer balls.
I do think if we declare victory and leave, that their 10 largest cities suddenly and unexpectedly explode 6 months after we leave. “Oh man! Did we leave those there?! So sorry! Our bad!”
Zman, you are absolutely correct, but your comment does beg the question: why are we still there in the first place?
One begins to suspect that we the people were never told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth concerning our presence in Afghanistan.
First, we were there to avenge 9-11 and destroy al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Then, once those goals were accomplished, the mission morphed into killing or capturing Osama Bin Laden. Somewhere along the line, mission creep happened again and nation-building came to the fore.
OBL is dead and the Taliban and al-Qaeda have been significantly damaged and put on the run. So, why are we still there?
To the point, when are the ruling elites planning to tell us why is it still necessary – after sixteen years – to remain in Afghanistan?
Well, >30% of US adults have been prescribed opioids…
can that 30% number be true?! and why doesn’t the government just curtail narcotics production and distribution by big pharma? the media like to conflate heroin and pill usage, but it is the legal opioids that are causing so many deaths.
Thats a questionable stat but it does include someone given Codeine for a nasty cough or say Norco for a broken bone which are valid uses.
Given the breadth its questionable if its inductive of abuse though there are plenty of other markers for that
US society is collapsing much as the USSR started to in the late 80’s and early 90’s , drug abuse is liable to be rampant
And note a crackdown on prescription is the lazy way out, a real effort would require curtailing trade and serious border control
That would cut down on cheap labor so that won’t happen
Fact is the US needs an entirely new government one that is highly nationalist, not corrupt, not afraid of responsibility and willing to be outright undemocratic for some decades
we probably won’t get that so the US will collapse after some time and either be 3nd or 3rd tier , have a civil war or become several separate nations
We might get lucky though, President Trump while not the solution is a step in the correct direction and there are more after him
We went there and remain there to place us troops between china and the middle east
Have you read the reports of how much the poppy fields and opium yields have increased since the US presence in Afstan? The CIA is making a mint on this deal and undermining the US populace at the behest of the globalists. You would “think” that napalming or carpet bombing poppy fields and keep them from reaching the point of producing “juice” would be a simple matter. But noooooo! That is the gold in many people’s eyes! Bling! Ka-ching!!
Instead of destroying these fields, US troops are protecting them.
Oh that I had more upvotes to give you you, sir.
I have nothing in particular against Afghans but as far as I am concerned they can “stew in their own juices”. If they insist on bringing jihad to our land I guess we can cut off the supply of jihadists at the source by impressing them with the miracle of the atom.
In the bright light of hindsight The Roman SolutionTM would have been better by far. Go in, take down the Taliban and most particularly Mullah Omar and his circle ‘with extreme prejudice’, install a more compliant ruler, make sure he clearly understood that this better not happen again or he’d get the same and then leave.
After 9/11, Afghanistan *had* to be punished as an example for other ME pestholes’ edification but we *did not* have to undertake the obviously futile task of trying to turn it into Denmark. Ditto Iraq.
it was the saudis who attacked us from afghanistan. as far as i know, the taliban haven’t done anything to anyone outside of their own country.
Saudis ? It was al qaeda and they were supported by taliban and the friendly neighbors Iran and Pakistan.
We know better than that.
Fact is we know who the big players are. We know who funds them. We know where they are trained. Any Saudi involvement beyond funding ended with Bin Laden. We knew Saddam had WMD’s because we sold them to him. We know that both Iran and Afghanistan are major exporters of terrorism. We know they receive funding from pretty much every middle eastern country. The gov’ts of Iran and Afghanistan were complicit in the terror export – which is why they had to be destroyed. Iran is next. (Mind you, they are masters of brinkmanship – and unless they screw up, when we square off against them we will be at a marked disadvantage.
Rome fell precisely because they tried to ‘take their ball and go home’. As a result they ended up fighting their enemies on their own turf. I strongly suspect if America tries to do the same, it will meet the same fate.
While a majority of the 9-11 hijackers carried Saudi passports, that does not establish Saudi government responsibility any more than The United States, Boston and New York City can be blamed for the Provo IRA terrorism in Britain because of the support provided by some of our citizens. Actual Saudi Government complicity is still possible, but I have heard no real evidence.
The evidence was buried by the Obama administration. THat the House of Saud was complicit in 9/11 is alluded-to in “Sleeping with the Devil” by Robert Baer. At the very least, Saudis pay danegeld to jihadists to take their jihad elsewhere. .
PRCD, you are precisely correct, re: “That the House of Saud was complicit in 9/11 is alluded-to in “Sleeping with the Devil” by Robert Baer. At the very least, Saudis pay danegeld to jihadists to take their jihad elsewhere.”
In 1991, FBI investigators captured the so-called “explanatory memo” of the Muslim Brotherhood on a raid. Since that time, we have had detailed knowledge of the “civilization jihad” planned by the Ikhwan, by which they hope to bring down our civilization from within.
The Sunni Arab nations of the Persian Gulf region – in particular Saudi Arabia and recently, Qatar – have been the foremost supporters of the “civilization jihad” strategy, spending billions to implement it not just in the United States, but around the non-Muslim world. Saudi Arabia and her fellow Sunni Arab states also are the wellspring for most of the terrorism and jihad in the world today, including ISIS – an organization created jointed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and the Obama regime, working covertly through the CIA and other intermediaries.
Some years ago, the high-level leaders of the Muslim Brothers and their counterparts in the Saudi government and royal family held secret meetings in which they arrived at a quid pro quo concerning a number of matters. The gist of the deal was that the Ikhwan would not attempt further to topple the Saudi government or any of the other Sunni Arab monarchies, and the MB would throw its support behind the economic and geopolitical objectives of these governments, i.e., especially pertaining to energy development. In return, the Arab governments would covertly support ISIS and other MB-affiliated groups in their civilization jihad efforts, as well as in their efforts to create a new Sunni caliphate in the greater Middle East (the ongoing demographic invasion of Europe by the Muslims is part of this effort).
In short, the sheiks told the Ikhwan – “Cease attacking us at home, and we’ll support your efforts to conquer the non-Muslim world” – or words to that effect.
Glen,
Consider this scenario, you are a teenager and you and your younger sister live in an orphanage owned by a wealthy benefactor who rapes the girls. The administrator begins poisoning your sister in her dormitory to weaken her and make her more compliant. Do you blame the poison or the administrator and the benefactor who paid him do it?
Getting angry at the poison won’t make it stop. The poisoning of your sister will continue so long as the administrator remains in power. It’s very difficult to remove the administrator so long as the benefactor continues to pay him.
1. You can try to run away with your sister and buy yourself some time.
2. You can try to remove the administrator who will most likely be replaced with another just like him.
3. You can try to cut off the source of income from the benefactor as a long term approach to shutting down the orphanage.
4. As a last ditch effort, you can try to organize your fellow orphans in an attempt to kill both the administrator, the benefactor and his armed guards. Doing this will mean the death of you, your sister and half of the orphans.
What do you do?
“…We have the very real problem that moslems in general and the Talibangers in particular – are animals. These goat feltching fig farmers still literally live in caves in some communities of Afghanistan…”
We should stay out of their country and let them have at it all they want.
“…There is no rule of law outside islam and half the monkeys that practice it can’t read or reason. Yet they are killing us and our women and children in real time every day…”
Then don’t let them in. Concentrate on what we can control.
Instead of “contractors” or “mercenaries”, how about we call them what they will become. “Drug cartels”.
Now you have piqued my interest. I’m a combat vet with an MBA. I’d be glad to head over there, occasionally shoot a haji, and organize the whole logistics process for an opium cartel. This working in an office crap is getting old.
Maybe you go full Milo Minderbinder and hire the hajis to attack themselves in return for a share.
I like the way you think – pay them to kill each other, collect the bounties from Uncle Sam, and keep the poppies growing.
I’m in, I am sure they need IT support
A Mercenary by any other name is still a mercenary. During the middle ages in Italy they were called condittieri, and tended to take on an independent existence.I suggest you, and President Trump consult Machiavelli about this. The armed men tend to develop their loayties to the comrades who fight at their shoulder and share their experiences. A secondary loyalty is to whomever pays and supplies them. Loyalty to the guy who hires them, not so much. Some outfits will die loyally for the cause that hires them, but many will see the wisdom of “He who fights and runs away, lives to be paid another day”. He who beats his sword into a plowshare will plow for him who beats his plowshare into a sword.
Machiavelli in The Prince had the definitive take on the dangers of using mercenaries exclusively, IMHO.
Tl:Dr: Mercenaries won’t actually willingly die just for the money. So if it looks like they just might have to, they’ll bail on you. So in peacetime they’ll ruin you financially and in wartime they’ll ruin you militarily. Plus, sooner or later they’ll figure out that can take you over. So a really capable mercenary commander is a danger to you in peacetime and a semi-capable one is a danger to you in wartime, etc.
So do these dangers also apply to the situation discussed above for fractional use of mercenary forces in Afghanistan_? It’s not necessarily so clear. But you can bet that the first time the Progs discover some atrocity they’ll be shrieking in the MSM for months. I don’t think Pres. Trump has neutralized the MSM nearly enough to be able to ride that sh*t storm out. And the need for more ‘atrocity’ is the very point of the exercise, as our esteemed proprietor properly infers.
Remember Abu Ghraib? That sh*t storm lasted months. The actual ‘atrocity’ took place only on one night and nobody died. It happened because a very nearly qualified affirmative action female general lost control of her troops. Mention of this direct causal factor, of course, was adroitly avoided by The Cloud Folk. As may be expected, their preferred remedy was more sensitivity training rather than rethinking the feminist imperative.
So it would seem that the same sort of paradox will also apply in Afghanistan: If the merc’s are good at their job they’ll be used by our domestic enemies and if they’re bad at it, they’ll be a waste of money. Plus, we’d have to bail them out (i.e. use our troops to extract them) when things went Tango Uniform if we ever hoped to have any more merc’s ever again work for us.
Also, if this gambit actually is successful, there’d be the strong temptation to use it elsewhere/everywhere, creating the dangers The Prince warned against. At the very least, the US military will need to maintain ‘escalation dominence’ over the sum of all of the mercenary forces used. Else we’ll be making the same mistake as did the Romans.
We can bet that the actual remedy, namely de-Clintonizing* the US military, will be the last thing tried by our esteemed elite.
*Under Clinton I female JAG’s showed up in the command post to actually run operations using passive-agressive ‘leadership’ under the guise of parsing the ROE (rules of engagement) for the first time in all history. We said then that we had been Clintonized, namely downsized, feminized and politicized. Bush II basically did little to reverse this baleful trend. He didn’t even disband the feminist commissar organization operating at all higher HQ set up under Clinton I (DoD Committee to Examine the Roles of Women in the Military or some such).
I assume most of these mercenaries would be combat arms vets of American and other Western militarizes. They’ll fight and die for each other.
They won’t die for senseless rules of engagement, community organizing, or any of the other BS we’ve been wasting money and lives on in Afghanistan for 15 years.
While I would like to assume that, I think it is a dangerous assumption.During the second half of 2016 I read reports about the Obozo maladministration facilitating the mass enlistment into the army of unvetted southern border crossers in exchange for accelerated citizenship.
RE: ” Plus, we’d have to bail them out (i.e. use our troops to extract them) when things went Tango Uniform ”
We’ve already been there – and done that:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Fallujah_ambush
I remember reading some accounts at the time it happened – from regular military guys who were righteously pissed because they felt the contractors had royally screwed the pooch on what they were doing over there and had instigated the whole Fallujah mess by their behavior.
http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Well-that-does-it-Charlie-we-ve-outsourced-everything-New-Yorker-Cartoon-Posters_i9185030_.htm
” work around the word on behalf of the US government.”
Hello Mr. Z, I believe you meant world.
Great article, keep up the great work
Tanks.
OK, I’ll play. Alter -> altar.
libertardian…. oh wait
I always pondered which political state our government would finally turn into, a fascist or communist one. But now I realize it is turning into something new, a hybrid of both, to achieve the same goal, unbridled power. Pretty cunning, when you think about it. Our polarized political society will be supporting it in the vain attempt to oust the other side. Little do they realize that both parties are in on the con, and knowingly wink at each other as they pretend to be outraged at one another on camera. This two faced government Janus will continue to make promises from both sides of it’s mouth to lead the naive voting marks along. A perfect split personality embodied by the state. Invest in lots of popcorn and a nice comfy easy chair, and watch the kabuki drama unfold.Just don’t stay for the end, as it will not be pretty.
And Angelo Codevilla maintains the two parties are actually just to factions of the same uniparty.
Most of the Government Party is pretty comfortable with Red Capitalism (the name we give China’s “market”). I prefer Market Marxism just because I invented it, and it rolls off the tongue better. The advantages of China’s system for the ruling elite is that it allows for a lot of rich Marxists, so they get to spread their money and power around, and, well, it’s a police state, so they exercise total control over the population.
That’s a win-win for guys like Obama, McCain, Clinton, the Bush’s, Zuckerberg, Musk, virtually all of national print and TV media, and the rest of the Government Party.
Corporations are beginning to morph into semi-political fiefdoms, issuing commands, controlling their areas, and doing the bidding of their master in Washington. In another century, few citizens will be able to comprehend the reality of our early republic. It will not be comprehensible to the kind of socialist man now being constructed.
Rollerball!
I have read that in Japan corporations have Company Flags and Anthems which the workers sing each morning. Recently I have noticed some American companies have supplemented their logos with banners.Are we developing a form of techno-feudalism?
What you are describing sounds suspiciously like a Japanese business cartel, or keiretsu – a tight-knit group of companies with shared interests and financial and business relationships. The East Asian mindset sometimes views business as war by other means, and if necessary, rival keiretsu will go to war with one another – literally as well as figuratively.
what would be a specific instance of two keiretsu literally going to war with each other?
When Utopia, Inc. runs everything and outsources its paperwork to the federal government, the transformation will be complete.
Here’s my take on what it will look like: http://jlepore.fineartstudioonline.com/blog/100913/utopia-inc
Some people will get rich and some will go to jail.
The mercenary outfits will be able to load up with the right weapons for a mission and get crap done while ignoring the rules of engagement the moment their government overseers are out of sight. I would think about trying to make some substantial under-the-table money this way if I was 20 years younger.
It will keep getting worse until it gets better. The US federal government is a living thing now. It is a leviathan that grows inexorably, and it’s first loyalty is to its own survival. It is now at the megalomania phase of psychosis, but will soon morph into overt sadism. No one person can stop it.
there is a lot of pathological behavior coming out of the current system, as it enters its death throes. a flurry of changes that are of no lasting matter, and often not even implemented (commands to the 6th army kind of thing). too many people believe in magic now, to maintain a modern society…