Skip to main content

For the first time since the wars started, more private military contractors than uniformed service members were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Or if you're a glass-half-full sort, the military's plan to outsource casualties is working

From: FARK.com: (5646343) For the first time since the wars started, more private military contractors than uniformed service members were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Or if you're a glass-half-full sort, the military's plan to outsource casualties is working

This is a bit too simplistic because a lot of these PMCs are probably very recent veterans, all this is doing is increase the monetary reward for even more danger and a lot less legal protection. How many of these PMCs left the service and immediately signed for PMC jobs? 

The same poor bastards are getting killed, only for a lot more money.

The problem here is that these people are still stuck doing the same job, and yes, for a lot more money, but they are not protected by the Geneva Convention. If you are running around armed to the teeth, and people are shooting at you, and you are not a cop or a soldier, what are you? If the prime motivator is money (that is, if you take out the obligation/duty carried by the oath of service) what is going to assure the company that their PMCs are going to toe the company line instead of allow themselves to be influenced by a higher bidder?

What I mean is that at least with a soldier, if he does the enemy’s bidding then he is treasonous, since he is violating the service oath. But what is the liability when a PMC for a company hired by country A is bribed by an entity that is not aligned with the interests of either the company or country A? It isn’t treason, since the oath is a commercial contract, so what is it? Breach of contract? Local legal liability if bribery is a crime? Is the PMC even within the local legal jurisdiction? Or would it be prosecuted as a crime in country A?

Related articles by Zemanta

Related articles by Zemanta

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On sleep deprivation and Incan Monkey Gods

From: Dilbert comic strip for 08/03/1992 from the official Dilbert comic strips archive. I was trying to show this strip to a coworker who is dangerously toying with the harsh mistress that is Insomnia. What shocked me is how quickly I was able to look up the strip, which was published when he was just 11 years old, and two weeks before my just-out-of-college ass shipped out to US Army Basic Training.
Post a Comment
Read more

Add custom speed settings to your ifit map workout

Ifit.com allows you to build a workout walk/race/bike route simply by clicking on a Google Maps interface. You can then use a compatible ifit-enabled workout machine to recreate the route automatically. The problem is that the user interface still isn't final, so there are features in place that aren't exactly obvious. For example, if you create a workout your machine starts at 1 MPH, because that's the default. But how to set it to start at say, 3 MPH? Easy, just switch from map view to graph view: That button switches from the Google Maps interface to a chart that allows you to visualize and control effort: You can't change the elevation, this is fixed due to the geography that you selected. But you can drag the yellow (speed line) to change the speed of your device.  What if you want to have segments at different speeds? Easy, just click and drag and it will break the line, and you can drag each segment of the line independently: ...
1 comment
Read more

All the President's men: Obama enjoys 20-MAN motorcade and splashes $1.5m on Hawaiian holiday | Mail Online

All the President's men: Obama enjoys 20-MAN motorcade and splashes $1.5m on Hawaiian holiday | Mail Online This is just silly. If you are the President of the United States, and you want to impress your childhood friends, why go through the trouble of flying down to meet them? Especially since the country is having a rough time lately, that's a lot of money! Here's how I would had done it: Find the next "VIP" government flight between Hawaii and DC that still had two seats left. Put the two guys on that flight, if anyone asks about them they are "under Presidential Orders." When they get to DC, pick them up in a Secret Service Yukon and drive them to either Blair House or the White House, where they'll stay as guests for a weekend or whatever. Plus they get to hang out with their buddy who happens to be the President of the United States. And all of this at very little cost to the taxpayer, since the VIP flights would had happened regardless, the fr...
3 comments
Read more