Posted on 08/04/2017 12:18:32 PM PDT by ex91B10
A federal appeals court threw out the lengthy sentences for three Blackwater Worldwide security contractors and ordered a new trial for a fourth man involved in a deadly 2007 shooting in Baghdad.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Good.
5.56mm
Swift Justice, again.
Ten years in? But, still. *SIGH*
The protection contracts Blackwater had to repeatedly negotiate we’re typically the size of a large college binder and they dictated even the brand of the dark glasses that the operators would wear.
Sometimes for good security it makes sense to go stealthy and poor looking instead of heavy and high-profile, right..?
Like for wheels, instead of having the spotless, blacked-out luxury SUVs you might want to go instead in a banged-up beater mobile with all kinds of strange ethnic stuff hanging on the outside, right..?
but no, State Department would have none of that, they wanted to go fancy and high-profile. in every case, it radically increased the danger.
24 hours a day our big spending, idiotic, legalistic, liberal State Department put Erik Prince and his guys into huge dangerous expensive binds.
Nobody who works as armed personnel in a foreign country for a U.S. government contractor should ever complain about how they’re treated under the laws of any country. The whole purpose of hiring them is to have them operate outside the legal requirements of U.S. law or the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
A very basic sound practice is to depart via a different route that you came in on right..?
well dealing with diplomats and politicians was not that easy at all:
if the egress route conferred a higher level of dignity to the Primary than the safer, dedicated egress route? Yeah, they would demand to leave via the same Dignified Route every time.
they would tell the guys, hey, the passing of our fancy spotless SUVs Shirley attracted a bunch of bad guys to that route so there are multiple ambushes waiting for you there...
but the their primaries would never listen and as a result they there was a lot more shooting than there had to be.
I have met contractors and their point of view is eye opening.
Bad guys use civilians as cover and shoot at good guys.
Bad guys die along with some of their coreligionists that they were using for cover.
Somehow, we won WWII without mercenaries.
They're Americans (usually former military) tasked by our government to protect the lives and interest of other Americans. They put their lives on the line to do incredible tasks for the nation at large - and they almost never get credit for it. In fact, sometimes they're sued or jailed for the privilege - BY THE SAME PEOPLE THAT HIRED THEM. Like that walking, soulless POS George W. Bush.
Many of the jobs contractors do CAN'T be done by .mil. Try putting .mil in a place like Pakistan.
“The whole purpose of hiring them is to have them operate outside the legal requirements of U.S. law or the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”
BS.
In your little head you think the "whole purpose" of PMCs is so that we can pursue our interests lawlessly? You have no idea WTF you are talking about.
PMCs have to be exponentially more fastidious about following US laws and the laws of host countries. Not only are they not PROTECTED by the UCMJ, but they can be prosecuted and sued into poverty.
“Somehow, we won WWII without mercenaries.”
Wanna bet, sunshine??
1. The Flying Tigers were instrumental in WWII.
2. The Gurkha’s. Mercs in WWI, establish British Army after WWII.
3. While not technically mercs in WWI as they enlisted into the British Army, American pilots went to go fight the Germans on behalf of the British before the US official entered the war. Mercs by any other name.
4. Throughout Africa, mercs were fighting in WWII.
Mercenary is not a bad name or profession. Everyone fights for money, yours or someone else’s.
Regarding WWI you left out the “Lafayette Escadrille”!
“To the shores of Tripoli..!”
There WERE marines there, maybe 30 or so, but the vast majority on the Punish The Pirates expedition were....yup..!
Mercenaries.
No hate those duh moments.
Heck, I left out lots of units. Mercs are all over the place. Still are. Even the locals we recruit are mercs.
AVG, the Gurkhas, thousands of Pacific islanders hired by the US military for reconnaissance, espionage and sabotage. Plus a few dozen Americans who joined the RAF before Pearl Harbor.
I doubt we’ve had a war yet without the use of Mercenaries, going all the way back to the War of Independence against Great Britain when Washington employed the likes of Frederick William Augustus, Baron von Steuben and Guilbert Mottier (AKA Marquis de Layfayette). Heck, in the War of 1812, we even hired a French pirate by name of Jean Laffite to harass British shipping for us.
The US Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 11) still TO THIS DAY gives Congress the authority to issue “Letters of Marque and Reprisal.” In layman’s terms, the Constitution says it’s okay for the Congress to hire mercenaries.
WWII was different in that it was the most recent war (I won’t say “last” because I don’t have a crystal ball) in which you went in “for the duration” of the war. Now troops rotate in and out, usually on a three, six or 12 month basis. And we’ve taken to hiring civilians in certain roles because our military benefits from the “continuity” of having had the same pair of boots on the ground through the transition(s). Even if that pair of boots happens to be hi-top Chuck Taylors.
Including third-country nationals, more US contract employees were killed in the Second Gulf War than all coalition military losses combined.
Heck, even our own military are primarily mercenaries since people sign up for the benefits (especially educational benefits) and pay and not to fight a known war.
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