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2004-04-03 Iraq-Jordan

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Posted by Traveller 2004-04-03 1:59:24 AM|| || Front Page|| [11128 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 I don't see someone, like those four killed in Fallujah, performing a duty under an occupying power, and with UN santion, as a mercenary
As far as I know a mercanary is someone who fall into the official definition.

Art. 47. Mercenaries

1. A mercenary shall not have the right to be a combatant or a prisoner of war.

2. A mercenary is any person who:

"(a) is specially recruited in order to fight in an armed conflict,(b) who takes a direct part in the hostilities, (c)who is motivated by money and is promised substantially higher pay than that paid to other combatants of similar rank, who is not a national of one of the countries involved in the conflict nor a resident of a territory controlled by any of the parties, is not a member of the armed forces of any of the parties, and who has not been sent by another country on official duty as a member of its armed forces"

However I have no problem with using mercenaries in the right situation, but Iraq is not it.

Posted by tipper 2004-04-03 10:25:44 AM|| 2004-04-03 10:25:44 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 Tipper points out the biggest flaw in the Geneva Conventions, IMHO: mercenaries are not protected by it. Bizarrely enough, according to some of the agreements signed by nearly everyone but the sane countries of the US and Israel, the terrorists would be protected.

If that doesn't churn your stomach, nothing will.

Posted by Robert Crawford 2004-04-03 10:52:26 AM|| [http://www.kloognome.com/] 2004-04-03 10:52:26 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 The use of "Mercenary" is inflammatory rhetoric, and against the definitions given in the Geneva Conventions.

... who is not a national of one of the countries involved in the conflict .. who has not been sent by another country on official duty as a member of its armed forces"

They were not "specifically recruited to fight in an armed conflict" - they are there as a US Government Contractor to provide security for food convoys, to assist the legitimate governing authority in feeding the people it is responsbile for.

Since these were contracted directly to the US government (certainly a national of one of the countries involved), and they were on official duties for the US Government and they were US citizens, they arguably are not mercenaries.

I have a friend over there now doing this work. I was holding my breath until I got an email from him. He tells me that the one who died violated policy and broke the rules by going through Fallujah, and on top of that they changed to a route that had no prior recon. He knew the risks when he went over. And as any good operator will tell you, you only freelance when your life depends on it and your original plan is broken. This was not the situation for that. They screwed up. They died. And everyone over there got a hard lesson. The people who comitted the barbaric acts are getting their hard lesson quite soon, some of them already getting visits at night.

Anyway, after he and the guys with him are home, I may post up some pictures - he sends me some every week (per him, the locals over there are starting to get pretty decent internet access). Then you will see the truth, not what the press puts out.

Posted by OldSpook 2004-04-03 11:07:13 AM|| 2004-04-03 11:07:13 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 Hesitation equals death.
I'd had plenty of opportunities to mull this over since getting to Baghdad. I didn't want to hurt another person. The idea sickened me. But now I knew for certain that I would, without hesitation.

My heart goes out to this reporter. He now knows the fundamental difference between being a civilian and being a warrior, the willingness to act, to kill, if needs require it.

Its not an easy thing to learn about yourself if you tend to be a deep thinker or a religious person. And its harder yet when you actually have pulled the trigger and seen the results.

Its a decision guys like us hope to spare our wives and children from having to make, by making that choice ourselves, and we go out hunting the wolves instead of waiting for them to be at our door.

And as any realisitic person knows, its a choice that not everyone can make. There is plenty of room in the world for the Ghandi's and Martin Luther King's - we need them to try to make the world into a place where there will not be a need for guys like us.

But as long as we don't run short of people that can willingly choose to pull the trigger when needed, then the wolf will not growl at all of our doors, at least not for long, and the peacemakers can go about their work unhindered.

Si vis pacem para bellum

Posted by OldSpook 2004-04-03 11:31:50 AM|| 2004-04-03 11:31:50 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 Excellent post, Traveller, it touches upon several nascent points for Americans. Indeed, most of us have been safely isolated from life/death situations our whole lives. As a kid on a farm, I have no problem remembering wringing a chicken's neck or riding down to the slaughterhouse with our home-grown steer - and watching the entire process that filled our freezer in the garage. Later, in the Army, I discovered what the contractor in the second vignette did. But I'm an old fart - most in the West have not Clue One.

I have never been a Mil Merc (Though it is an appealing thought for me, too, Traveller!) but there's definitely overlap between that and being a Civ Contractor in weird places. Some of us have what I call the Adventure Gene - I sure do, and it was the reason I spent 4 yrs working in Saudi. The love of the weird, wacky, different to the degree of incomprehensibility, dismissing many of the inconveniences in favor of experiences unavailable in the safe nest of MommyLand -- these are the symptoms of Adventure Gene carriers.

OS has it right both here and in another of today's threads - I don't buy that the Blackwater people were "mercenaries" - they are Civ Contractors whose job is the assessment and development of security practices for food shipments. They certainly became their own worst object lesson in the case of Fallujah. And, yeah, they fucked up. Since they definitely paid the ultimate price for doing so, no one should be so presumptuous as to vilify them for it. Just learn from it and move on.

On the other point, as OS argues elsewhere, it's time to get medieval - nothing less will do - or survive. It has always happened in war. Just because Life and The Saturday Evening Post didn't feature it, doesn't mean it didn't happen, and frequently too, off-camera and away from the eyes of those who don't know what the Contractor was talking about in the excerpt. It happened. It happens now. It always has and always will in war. Some will have to get over it.

Today there are 3 "new" components (please add more as needed) I figure clearly play a major role to differentiate from previous wars:
1) cameras - everywhere, and pictures are very powerful
2) MUCH better communications (Vets: recall those old FM units?) including the Internet and GPS
3) weapon lethality

The first factor will make the MommyLand people cringe - we saw it in the Kuwait City exodus that turned into a modern "killing field" - and freaked the weenies right out of their shoes. We will see if events like Fallujah help some of them both "get it" and "get over it."

The second means better mil coordination and rapid reactions - better efficiency. It also means asshats can coord actions with their cellphones -- and upload images to the Internet - with results varying across the entire spectrum, intended and otherwise. This magnifies item #1's effect, IMHO. An additional aspect, from the Internet of course, is that "How To" cookbooks can end up in anyone's hands. So everything from the fertilizer-fuel oil bomb to simple non-explosive weapons (e.g. chemical - Sarin, etc.) can pop up anywhere. A lot of people will die - directly because of the Internet. And who can doubt the changes about brought by GPS?

The lethality item will even surprise old timers who "get it" - but had lesser gear, such as me. Others know the inventory much better than I do and I leave it to them to expound. I rely upon my Grandfather's old Colt 45 and a Samurai sword I bought 25 years ago in a pawn shop.

Everyone's gonna get dirty in the WoT and figure it out - or they will beg to kow-tow - and lose. We all have to, at the very least, try to "get it" and "get over it" -- or get the hell out of the way of those willing to do it for us, such as the Contractors.

Apologies for the length.

Posted by .com 2004-04-03 12:00:57 PM|| 2004-04-03 12:00:57 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 now that's a rant

Posted by Frank G 2004-04-03 12:08:20 PM|| 2004-04-03 12:08:20 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 9.6
Extra points for slipping in Samurai sword.

Posted by Shipman 2004-04-03 12:32:42 PM|| 2004-04-03 12:32:42 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 Old Spook is right - these men were not mercenaries. That term is being misused, as a way to devalue their lives.

Traveller, some Americans do know about life and death first hand. Talk with anyone who grew up hunting. My first year out deer hunting, I winged a doe. At my father's insistence, we hiked two and half miles through heavy brush, in miserable weather, to find her and kill her cleanly so that she wouldn't suffer.

He insisted I do the final shot since I had jumped the gun and took a poor shot to begin with. Then we brought her out, took her home and, as we always did, gratefully added her flesh to our freezer.

I married a man who doesn't hunt and we live in a nice suburban home now. I can buy as much pre-packaged meat as we like. But I haven't forgotten being hungry when my dad was laid off and I haven't forgotten where food comes from -- or what being honorable means for those who shoot guns.

Now as a middle-aged woman I teach young men and women who will shortly become Army officers. They too have learned a lot about honor in their 4 years at the bend of the Hudson. Some will learn about blood close up soon.

If we've done our jobs right, they will never ever stoop to the desecration we saw in Fallujah, nor will they ever excuse it on the part of others.

Posted by rkb 2004-04-03 2:13:01 PM|| 2004-04-03 2:13:01 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 My 2 bits - we live in the best nation on the planet - no doubt in my mind, however, I fear many of my civilian countrymen have gotten soft, fat, indifferent and worst of all - complacent.
Capitalism is great, but the pure pursuit of material goods without thought for posterity of one's nation is not patriotism, it is the worst case of me-ism & stupidity. I feel unfortunately many Americans have fallen into this. I also hate to say it but I look at some people (far left-libz, pretentious yuppie schmucks, and the m-tv generation) when I'm on leave and wonder how the fuck it got to be that my life blood protects their ability to stay fat, ignorant, soft and weak. Pressing on....

These guys were not mercs. The writer of this article is a very sensitive and an observant person. In a way, he values life, any life more then prolly a lot of the people who were approaching him at the gas station, case in point - the difference between us and them. He also felt bad about making them wait, prolly not my reaction, but such is life.

I've killed a few deer, doves, squirrel, feral hogs, and one rabid dog. Felt worse about that deep down then seeing any dead enemy iraqis or afghans. Maybe because I dehumanize them to cope w/the fact that they were someone's son, brother, father etc. The bottomline, imho as a warrior, your there for a job, keep yourself alive to complete the mission and save U.S. lives, period. No sense in beating yourself up about "what if's" and other crap, no time for that, men depend on me to stay icy professional and lead by example, we need to do so without hesitation. Way I figure it, its him or me, I have a family to get home to so fuck him. Maybe when I'm 75 I'll have a good reflection on it, until then - focus on the mission & take care of your lads in the process. That simple.

Posted by Jarhead 2004-04-03 5:42:09 PM|| 2004-04-03 5:42:09 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 Interesting link re mercenaries, here.
"Successive British governments have kept the mercenaries at arm's length. Now, however, the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, has decided that mercenaries are, in fact, rather a good thing. They have therefore, in true New Labour fashion, been re-branded as "private military companies" (PMCs). And this week the Foreign Office published a Green Paper proposing a system of licensing or regulation for companies offering military services abroad."

Posted by tipper 2004-04-03 8:15:43 PM|| 2004-04-03 8:15:43 PM|| Front Page Top

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