The took part in combat operations against Japanese forces and received approximately three times more pay than while on active duty and were commonly referred to as mercenaries. The Flying Tigers would see service through July when they were replaced by the U. Army 23 rd Fighter Group. Today, the mercenary trade has evolved to primarily being headed by private military companies PMCs.
These companies specialize in providing soldiers, military training, logistics, and other services to governments, civil organizations, and international communities. They are legally established companies or enterprises that make money through providing services that rely on legal use of armed force, intelligence gathering, logistics support, or equipment procurement. Although PMCs fill a critical security void throughout the world in a time of austere national budgets, the United Nations continues to officially disapprove of their use ignoring the fact the UN has previously hired the company, Executive Outcomes for logistics work in Africa.
The primary argument for using PMCs is that they help stabilize areas across the world where the UN or other coalitions are unable or not yet willing to intervene to save civilian lives. Both countries have not signed the accord. The majority of classic mercenary-like jobs on the market today typically require past military or law enforcement experience. Even better, is previous experience working in the special forces of the army, USMC, navy, or air force if seeking the higher paying security-related jobs available on the market.
For example, if you want to be a security consultant, then service as a MP in the U. After all, mercenaries have been part of warfare ever since Persian prince and general Cyrus the Younger hired the Ten Thousand, a large army of Greek mercenaries, to seize the throne of Persia from his brother Arsaces.
That fateful battle, which left Cyrus the Younger and many Greek soldiers dead, occurred in B. The style of warfare was certainly much different in B. Were ancient mercenaries really different? Were they perceived as negatively then as they are now? Did the use of mercenaries give way to other military trends and strategies, only to be resurrected recently?
Or have soldiers of fortune, as they're often called, been a permanent fixture of major political conflicts? In particular, we'll examine why mercenary armies are attractive alternatives for countries at war, as well as the risks and controversies surrounding their use.
Our first step is to clarify what the word "mercenary" means. As we'll see in the next section, the military definition of mercenaries is precise and has serious implications for those who decide to become professional soldiers. Name Calling Mercenaries have been called many things over the years. Most colloquialisms reflect the public's low opinion of professional soldiers:. The word "mercenary" comes from the Latin "merces," which means "wages" or "fee.
Although this definition could apply to many of us in the working world, it's most closely associated with the professional soldier , or someone who is hired by a political entity to fight in a conflict. That conflict could be a war, a coup attempt or a prohibition campaign designed to reduce illegal drug trade.
For example, the French Foreign Legion formed in to absorb European refugees who were streaming into France in the wake of the July Revolution of As Legionnaires , these foreign-born soldiers fought as a branch of the regular armed forces of France.
So in the strictest sense of the definition, they were mercenaries because they were hired to serve in a foreign army. But they were required to serve a five-year contract, and they could ask for French nationality after three year's service. Clearly, the division between mercenary and non-mercenary soldiers was getting fuzzy. The four Geneva Conventions had to account for these nuances as they tried to formalize rules regarding how combatants and noncombatants would be treated during wartime.
According to the Geneva Conventions, a lawful combatant is a soldier who belongs to the armed forces of a state. Lawful combatants can legally participate in hostilities with an enemy of the state and must be granted prisoner-of-war status if captured. Notice that members of the French Foreign Legion are lawful combatants by this interpretation. One of three amendments ot the Geneva Conventions, the first Protocol of clearly defines all of the criteria that a soldier must meet to be considered a mercenary.
A mercenary is a person who:. As such, a mercenary isn't a lawful combatant and enjoys no protection under the Geneva Conventions. He can be executed or charged with murder if he kills either a combatant or a noncombatant. In , the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution that outlawed the use of mercenaries.
However, only 30 countries have ratified the resolution to date. Many countries, including the United States and Iraq , have not signed the accord, mainly because mercenaries, while discouraged by international law, offer several advantages that make them attractive to countries at war.
In the next section, we'll find out what those advantages are. The reasons for using mercenaries have changed over the years. In ancient times, mercenaries were a necessity. Standing armies weren't available, so rulers had to look elsewhere for soldiers after they exhausted their supply of able-bodied citizens available to fight.
For example, the Hundred Years' War , which lasted from to , took its toll on the English and French armies. As the prolonged war grew in dimension, so did the number of mercenaries.
Soldiers from all over Europe flocked to France to get their share of the loot, which included both salary and whatever they could plunder. Some remained in France and continued to wreak havoc there. Free companies would often specialize in certain forms of combat or in certain weapons. It became possible to hire, not just additional soldiers, but soldiers who possessed a specific skill.
Two mercenary armies amplified this trend in the 15th and 16th centuries. The first was the Swiss Guard , whose soldiers became so skilled with close-combat weapons, especially the spearlike pike, that warlords all over Europe began recruiting them for battle.
The German Landsknechte also used the pike as their primary weapon, but they weren't one-dimensional. Other soldiers supported the pikemen with swords. And the Landsknechte were much more likely to use firearms, such as the arquebus , a musketlike weapon. These characteristics made the Landsknechte the dominant mercenary force until the development of political standing armies in the midth century.
German mercenaries upheld their reputation as skilled warriors into the 18th century. Many came to America during the Revolutionary War to support the British, who simply didn't have enough troops. In fact, most of the soldiers the Americans fought weren't British; they were German. Known as freiwillige , or volunteers, these fighting men came largely from German-occupied countries to fight for the Third Reich. Technically, the freiwillige weren't mercenaries because, as volunteers, they were treated the same as other German soldiers.
Their use, however, illustrates another reason why mercenaries were popular: By cultivating recruits internationally, a nation could capitalize quickly on all available manpower to build an even larger fighting force. After World War II , the use of mercenaries declined. Many went to work in Third World countries, especially in Africa , where they were hired both by government and antigovernment groups. Mercenaries, especially those from Europe, participated in various postcolonial wars across the African continent -- in Congo, Angola and Sierra Leone.
Contractors don't count as "boots on the ground" and threaten democratic accountability of the armed forces. Congress often has no idea of who's being contracted, why and for how much, even though they write the checks.
This facilitates mission creep and lowers the barriers of entry into conflict. Mercenaries are incentivized to start and expand war for profit.
Out of work mercenaries may become brigands, preying on the weak. In other words, more mercenaries means more war. Even popes hired mercenary armies. If the US regulated this industry to harshly, the industry would move offshore, beyond the reach of regulators. Worse, there are no robust international laws to regulate this industry. Even if there was a new Geneva Protocol on the topic, it would be difficult to enforce. They shoot back, and can kill your law enforcement. Nor will the UN.
Even if they do, there are few serious consequences for them. In , a group of Blackwater operatives opened fire on a busy Iraqi city centre, killing 17 civilians. The Nisour Square killings provoked a backlash, stoked a debate over whether contracting wars was successful and whether the mechanisms in place for accountability were enough when such incidents occur.
The Prado report explains how governments and their various arms use contracted security and former military personnel to sidestep political constraints and use force in other countries. PMCs have become a popular option for the US government, having evolved into a monopsony with America being one of the main buyers. The loss of lives in conflicts such as the World Wars or the eponymous Vietnam War has pushed nations to minimise the loss of life of their own troops by hiring PMCs to fight their wars for them.
Mission creep means the gradual expansion of a military operation, usually resulting in a long-term project. The US contracted 10 percent of its forces during World War 2 but this number increased fivefold during the wars it fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. PMCs are also a popular option outside the US. Many countries, including individuals, use them to circumnavigate legal limits or scrutiny.
The UAE's participation in the conflict has drawn international outrage over war crimes and devastating impact on civilian lives. The same group has been hired by Israel to provide security in Palestine. Not many people have heard about how British aristocrats were implicated in a scandal involving the hiring of Logo Logistics , a British-South African PMC, to overthrow the Equatorial Guinea government - for profit.
PMCs just make it that much easier for a government or individual to hire a specialist group to do the dirty work. As hiring PMCs can widen the breadth of parties involved, things get more complicated. There would be a bidding war for the loyalty of the force, something I saw warlords do in Africa. While the scope of private military and security contractors expands, regulatory laws lag behind. A UN panel in noted these glaring gaps. It sought to implement an international monitoring mechanism among other recommendations; a draft convention that never materialised.
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