"The Future of Warfare on Dispaly"

Those who get their news from the traditional media were undoubtedly dumbfounded on Sep. 17 when a story about private military company Blackwater USA made world news.
Blackwater, a private company that provides mercenaries to protect US State Department personnel in Iraq got into trouble when its soldiers killed some “Iraqi civilians” (armed terrorists) in a firefight in Baghdad. The Iraqi government promptly pulled Blackwater’s mercenary license but the State Department balked because Blackwater is our diplomats’ primary defense against the bad guys in Iraq.
Average people were undoubtedly shocked to learn that the Marines weren’t protecting our diplomats but anybody familiar with the course warfare is taking wasn’t. Blackwater is a prime example of what Col. William Lindh and others call Fourth Generational Warfare. That is warfare waged by entities other than the state, terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, drug cartels and private companies like Blackwater.
Blackwater is one of many American and British private military companies that operate in Iraq. Some reports indicate that there are as many as 100,000 military contactors operating in Iraq.
These contractors do what the military can’t, they operate in an aggressive, violent manner, make deals with terrorists and other local thugs and bring in large numbers of professional soldiers from countries outside the coalition. Blackwater the most visible of these companies operates fleets of helicopter gunships and armored vehicles in Iraq.
Much of the success of Blackwater and it’s British competitor Aegis Defense Services is based upon private companies ability to pay much higher salaries than the military. Highly trained soldiers from the US Special Forces (Navy Seals, Delta Force, Green Berets, etc.) and Her Majesty’s Special Air Services and Commando units retire from uniform to get much higher pay and stock options in private industry. These companies are also able to recruit highly trained soldiers from other countries such as Chile and Austria to augment their forces.
Suddenly the state in the form of the so-called Iraqi Government and the US Congress have noticed Blackwater’s existence. Which is funny because Blackwater has been around for ten years, other private military companies are even older.
The assault on Blackwater maybe the state trying to reassert its authority or it maybe based on more crass motives. Iraqi politicians maybe incensed because they aren’t getting any bribes from Blackwater, Iraqi soldiers maybe angry because they aren’t getting enough of the lucrative military contracts and our Congress.
Well, next year is going to be a very costly election and Blackwater may not be writing enough checks to Democratic campaigns. Also note Blackwater is a heavily Republican company, its owner Erik Prince was a staffer in the first Bush White House. I wouldn’t be at all surprised that Nancy Pelosi and company want to give Blackwater’s contract to a competitor run by a good Democrat. Or to force Prince to get out his check book and start writing checks to Democrats.
My guess is that this is far from the last we hear about Private Military Companies and Blackwater. Bill Clinton made extensive use of them when he was President, and with the unpopularity of traditional military action in Iraq Hillary will probably see them as a politically palatable alternative to the Pentagon. The UN is looking at Blackwater, etc. for Peacekeeping.
The only question is when will Chinese, Russian and Indian private military companies (perhaps backed by those nations’ militaries) deploy forces that are cheaper and more effective than Blackwater’s. I wonder will Americans settle for foreign companies defending their interests in the Middle East? I have a feeling that if the question is “hire Chinese mercenaries to kill Arabs or draft your sons” the answer will be “hire as many as Chinese as possible….” As Matt Drudge would say the story is developing.