Moral issues aside, is it feasable for organizations to hire private militaries for peacekeeping and protection duties in darfur or other regions where aid is needed but the place is still volitile.

Example: Bill and Melinda gates foundation, along with some other income, decide they want to set up a 'safety zone' somewhere in Sudan, so they buy up land and protect it with a private army until the area is established and can defend itself (realistically, this couldnt happen, but as an example...)

Obviously, they would run into problems entering a country where the government doesn't want them, but in a place where a government provided no opposition, would the UN be opposed to it? Would the US step in to stop them?

6/14/2007 4:30:03 PM

Realistically, it might be able to happen. Blackwater claims it could have a 10,000 man force ready to deploy within a month. The problem is, that mercenary / contractor companies like Blackwater or Triple Canopy both hire someone who is willing to have his killing skills hired out for money. That kind of personality doesn't make a particularly good peace keeper.

It is very possible in the next ten years or so, as our commitment in Iraq wanes, that these companies will find business by hiring themselves out to corporate interests overseas; ie. protecting uranium / diamond mines in Africa, oil fields in the Middle East, etc.

[Edited on June 14, 2007 at 5:52 PM. Reason : .]

6/14/2007 5:48:47 PM

the US has stopped private military firms in Africa before under the Clinton administration. private military firms had been very successful in certain areas but some were filled with corruption and crime. in some areas, sierra leone for example, pmc's were able to do with a small force what the united nations was unable to do with a force many times larger. however in other areas mercenaries would establish an area of control and essentially run it as their on fiefdom. if companies and governments want to hire private military corporations they should be allowed, but its important to remember that these organizations often operate without the same accountability as a national or multi-national force.

6/14/2007 5:54:05 PM

the problem is that you cant impose the same restrictions on blackwater like you can on the army. Whats to stop blackwater from going in there and seriously fucking some shit up without accountability?

6/15/2007 12:25:28 AM

^Nothing really, unless it was in their contract NOT to do it (from say, the gates foundation or whoever). But I don't see how much worse they could do in a place like darfur.

6/15/2007 12:30:17 AM

An excerpt from Blood Is Thicker Than Blackwater:

Quote :

"But today, Blackwater is facing a potentially devastating battle--this time not in Iraq but in court. The company has been slapped with a lawsuit that, if successful, will send shock waves through the world of private security firms, a world that has expanded significantly since Bush took office. Blackwater is being sued for the wrongful deaths of Stephen "Scott" Helvenston, Mike Teague, Jerko Zovko and Wesley Batalona by the families of the men slain in Falluja. More than 428 private contractors have been killed to date in Iraq, and US taxpayers are footing almost the entire compensation bill to their families. "This is a precedent-setting case," says Marc Miles, an attorney for the families. "Just like with tobacco litigation or gun litigation, once they lose that first case, they'd be fearful there would be other lawsuits to follow." The families' two-year quest to hold those responsible accountable has taken them not to Falluja but to the sprawling Blackwater compound in North Carolina. As they tell it, after demanding answers about how the men ended up dead in Falluja that day and being stonewalled at every turn, they decided to conduct their own investigation. "Blackwater sent my son and the other three into Falluja knowing that there was a very good possibility this could happen," says Katy Helvenston, the mother of 38-year-old Scott Helvenston, whose charred body was hung from the Falluja bridge. "Iraqis physically did it, and it doesn't get any more horrible than what they did to my son, does it? But I hold Blackwater responsible one thousand percent." http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060508/scahill"

Reason enough for me...the ends don't justify the means.

[Edited on June 15, 2007 at 12:47 AM. Reason : add]

6/15/2007 12:46:25 AM

^im glad to hear that, i hate the concept of having large private armies, its just not good for america

6/15/2007 1:00:26 AM

^exactly

6/15/2007 1:24:33 AM

wow. suing blackwater for wrongful death? that's a new low. While, yes, BW did some shady shit, I think you will be hard-pressed to argue an actual wrongful death. Breach of contract is fucking obvious, of course. But there's no money in that. so, sue for wrongful death instead. this shit sickens me.

6/15/2007 8:45:01 PM

^ You're an idiot.

[Edited on June 15, 2007 at 9:46 PM. Reason : carat]

6/15/2007 9:46:39 PM

great response care to explain why i'm an idiot? or is it just because I don't buy into the John Edwards "sue everyone who isn't me" methodology?

6/15/2007 10:08:01 PM

I thought private armies was our second amendment right.

6/15/2007 10:27:07 PM

Hey Guth, do you have any links I could read up on? Who hired the private force in sierra leone?

6/15/2007 10:40:15 PM

Quote :

"I thought private armies was our second amendment right."

yeah but i dont think they had mercinaries in mind when they made that.

also i dont support ridiculous lawsuits, i just want someone to stop them from growing and start dismantiling this disease

if ever there was chaos in america, groups like this would take over

6/16/2007 12:26:11 AM

^^ Read up on Executive Outcomes, the Mercenary group that operated in SL among other places. They have since been disbanded because of laws passed in South Africa. Interestingly enough they are aleged to have evolved into the current PMC Aegis Defence Services. Also of note is that a number of their former employees are currently spending time in prison for attempting to stage a coup in Equitorial Guinea with the help of Maggy Thatcher's son.

http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/executive_outcomes.htm

[Edited on June 16, 2007 at 10:58 AM. Reason : link]

6/16/2007 10:57:19 AM

^thanks!

6/16/2007 2:23:53 PM

didnt check the date on that did you... 2006...

[Edited on June 20, 2007 at 11:24 AM. Reason : article | posted April 19, 2006 (May 8, 2006 issue)]

6/20/2007 11:22:05 AM