Matters Blackwater (Merged thread)

[jcustis]

zdfg, since your location show Kabul, would you care to share a short introduction?

If you are currently working contract security, your views would certainly be appreciated when the subject of PMCs comes up. As you have seen, the SWC has a forum dedicated specifically to PMCs, and we need members from that field.

If you aren't comfortable posting much in the open, please PM me or SWJED, and we will check things out and "certify" you as a real-deal BTDT.

[zdfg]

Certainly. PM sent regarding background.

[Stan]

To refer to these men as mercenaries or purely as civilians is inaccurate.

I was picked up by DoS/PM/WRA (Weapons Removal and Abatement) years back to work under RONCO with Humanitarian Demining. They were adamant about required skills and especially military background. Language abilities would be a plus.

I know several folks out of DS, most are or were cops, special agents and almost always former military officers and NCOs.

Welcome Aboard !

The linkage is quite simple: if the US government decides it is necessary to armed forces on the ground, then the US government needs to equip train and deploy US government forces to do that job. Contractors are offered as a "cheap" or "short term" fix for what are often self-created shortfalls.

On the other hand, Tom hits a sore point (he does that often). Once in place and other than a monthly paycheck, training, follow-on training and needed (relatively significant and yes, expensive) equipment never showed. Keep it cheap one said to me from the onset.

Regards, Stan

[Tom Odom]

Anything I said above or anywhere else is not targeted at the individual, ZDFG, when it comes to PMCs. My target is again the decision maker who makes a decision to:

A. Accept risk in manning and equipment

B. When that risk proves severe, fill it as a shortfall with contractors

C. AND DOES NOT BEGIN TO ADDRESS THE ORIGINAL NEED WITH LONG TERM SOLUTIONS

When that last block gets checked, it becomes a self-licking ice cream cone, one with potentially great effects elsewhere. For instance, your listing of qualifications highlights one clear effect: creating these type PMCs sucks talent out of the standing forces.

I am not unfamiliar with decisions like this: I am at least partially responsible for one of the strangest use of PMCs in recent history: that of the UNHCR hiring a PMC drawn from the armed forces of a host nation to protect NGOs from genocidal maniacs on the territory of the host nation.

Why am I responsible? Because I thought of it and set events in motion.

Was it a short term fix? Yeah, as in placing a bandaid on a sucking chest wound.

Did it address --or allow someone else to address--the origin of the problem when it went from "short term" to "long-term"? Yes and No.

Yes in that it kept a lid on open violence against NGOs and that was my intent.

No in that neither the UN nor the key international players in the crisis were willing to take effective action until it was too late.

The result: the Rwandan Civil War morphed iinto what has been called the "African World War" and killed at more than 3 million people in the process (not counting those slaughtered in the genocide).

Best

Tom