Mercenary Challenges

Mercenary Challenges
Posted by Perry Jefferies [1] on December 9 [2] 2008

Doug Brooks is an engaging man that likes to cite Webster's when defending the mercenaries he lobbies for. As he argued with Jeremy Scahill in an interview with Amy Goodman, that the term mercenary is derogatory. "It’s a derogatory—well, it’s a derogatory term. Basically, the international definition, and there’s like six parts that weigh into it, but essentially you have to be—to be a mercenary, you cannot have been sent by a government, you cannot be a party of the actual conflict, you cannot be from a country that’s a party of the actual conflict, your primary motivation has to be money." Theocrat and Blackwater CEO Eric Prince, likes to cite Websters, relying on the "only mercenaries if one serves a foreign army" canard. But they both forget the definition of "Soldier" when refuting the use of the word "mercenary" to describe what they do. A Soldier is "One who serves in an army." Blackwater contractors are not serving in the Army. Though some of their activities may be useful to this country, Iraq, or some of the people there - they perform those activities primarily for renumeration and are free of an oath to this nation while doing so. Brooks, commenting on changes to U.S. procedures in Iraq, said in Government Executive [3] : "While we're confident the Department of State did not intend to put at risk the human rights of the thousands of civilians from around the world [who are] providing essential skills in support of Iraq reconstruction, we are disappointed and concerned that the document offers so few legal protections," said Doug Brooks, president of the International Peace Operations Association, a trade group for security contractors. He was forgetting the rights of the Iraqis, the troops, and even many of the imported workers held as virtual prisoners in Iraq in order to satisfy contracting desires for cheap labor. But I don't intend to blend labor contractors like builders and cooks with the armed security contracts that serve as shooters instead of filling those roles with troops under command. I bring all this up because yesterday five former Soldiers, most Veterans of Iraq, surrendered to the FBI in Utah [4] for a slew of charges starting with manslaughter. Blackwater and their lawyers are pushing back hard - having the men surrender in Utah which is perceived as friendlier to their activities. With excellent timing, MaryBeth Laguna wrote and widely published an op-ed [5] last week about her husband Art, who was killed in Iraq flying a helicopter for Blackwater after a thirty-year military career. Laguna talks about her husband being "deployed" to Iraq with Blackwater and writes: "Our all-volunteer military is overwhelmed and doesn't have enough soldiers with the experience it takes to guard the kinds of high-profile and highly targeted Americans who must travel around Iraq. That's why veterans working for contractors such as Blackwater, DynCorp [6], Triple Canopy and others are stepping up to serve their country again. My husband and his fellow contractors answered a call. Art didn't do it for the money." Really? Then why didn't he stay in the military and contribute to it being less overwhelmed? As one of my best cooks left Iraq, leaving our staff short when the stop-loss first lifted, I asked him why he would get out when we were primed to promote him. He had few plans and mentioned working as a contractor. I told him that he'd probably end up right back in Iraq and why wouldn't he stay with us. "Eighty grand a year and no guard duty" was the quick answer. And that is one of the problems with these operations. Troops take the taxpayer-paid military training and experience out of the military and bring it to these companies where it is used without the controls, leadership, or accountability of the military. And that sets up a situation like the one these five were arrested for. [4] I don't know the personal story of each of the five although I suspect we will hear very selected and glowing bits of them over the next few months during the legal and PR wrangling over these charges. But whatever they were before - when in Iraq working for Blackwater - they were mercenaries and not Soldiers. When they over-reacted or committed manslaughter in that square in Baghdad it was not as a deployed troop serving the national leadership under an oath to the country but as a person voluntarily employed by a corporation and paid a heck of a salary. And they sullied our national name and possibly their freedom for dollars - not duty.