The Enforcer (20,000 in Iraq ,but don't call them 'mercenaries')

[muriel_volestrangler]

Colonel Tim Spicer is the future of warfare. Immaculately dressed, effortlessly charming, a keen Eric Clapton fan with tickets for most of Slowhand's gigs over the summer, he is also effectively in charge of the second largest military force in Iraq: the estimated 20,000 private security personnel who outnumber the British army by almost three to one. Spicer's company Aegis has a contract with the Pentagon worth almost $300m to oversee the 16 private security companies providing personnel, security, military training and reconstruction. As Bush's poll ratings fall, it looks as if these private soldiers will only increase.

Estimates of their numbers vary and Spicer isn't convinced by the figure of 20,000. "I'd say there's no more than 8,000 if you define it as expat Brits or Americans," he says. "If you include Iraqi security companies and third country nationals like Gurkhas, Fijians and others, you could be getting up to 20,000. The oil protection force used to be run by a private security company and it had upwards of 10,000 people in it, but that's now been nationalised under the ministry of oil."
...
In a world where everything is contracted out, however, big security contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq mean the private security sector is bidding for respectability. Certainly the City sees the potential. Spicer is fending off calls from investors almost every day. Earlier this year, the British Association of Private Security Companies was set up, a lobbying body keen to promote self-regulation. The word mercenary is frowned upon. Although Spicer was happy to use it in its literal sense five years ago, it now makes him uncomfortable. "It's a pejorative term," he shrugs. "Mercenaries are bad."

Which is why he set up Aegis in September 2002. "I wanted to make sure that Aegis was a completely different animal." The company now has 1,200 employees. Three divisions provide intelligence, security operations and technical support. Many of the ground staff are ex-military, but the board has a number of merchant bankers and there's a sprinkling of journalists, police, former UN staffers and aid workers. There are offices in London, Washington, Kabul, Saudi Arabia and Nepal, but the company's largest presence is in Iraq.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1779307,00.html

How nice of him to question whether Nepalese and Fijians really count. :sarcasm:

[Briar]

1. Why can't we call them mercenaries?

That's what they are.

In the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions (GC) of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977 it is stated:

Art 47. Mercenaries

A mercenary is any person who:
(a) is specially recruited locally or abroad in order to fight in an armed conflict;
(b) does, in fact, take a direct part in the hostilities;
(c) is motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain and, in fact, is promised, by or on behalf of a Party to the conflict, material compensation substantially in excess of that promised or paid to combatants of similar ranks and functions in the armed forces of that Party;
(d) is neither a national of a Party to the conflict nor a resident of territory controlled by a Party to the conflict;
(e) is not a member of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict; and
(f) has not been sent by a State which is not a Party to the conflict on official duty as a member of its armed forces.


It should be noted that many countries including the U.S. are not signatory to the Protocol Additional GC 1977 (APGC77). So although it is the most widely accepted, it is not definitive.



(From Wikipedia - and yes, how prescient of the US not to sign the protocol.)

(Of course to the motivation of private gain should be added simple enjoyment of the job, if Spicer is typical. "I did go and work in the City," he smiles, "but if you've trained to do certain things for 20 years and you're halfway competent and ... and you enjoy it, because that is the difference between the conscript and the volunteer, you probably miss it, if the truth be known.")

[bananas]

2. I call them mercenaries.

Our #1 ally is mercs.

[Warren Stupidity]

5. we are a party to the conflict.

Consequently merc doesn't apply as per (d). The correct term is 'privateer'.

However as we are maintaining the fiction that the occupation ended when the 'sovereign' Iraqi government was established, perhaps our mercs no long are exempt under (d).

[spindrifter]

3. Interesting--I used

to visit the AegisIraq web page every once in a while to see the videos they were posting, and you know, to kind of get a feel for some of the issues they were dealing with--booze, drugs, getting canned, which merc outfit was doing the "unsafe" stuff. Can't get in any more. Securitied out. Hmmph.

[Usrename]

4. K&R n/t