I have posted on here in different threads my concerns on PMCs. You can find those simply by looking at my profile.

I have dealt with the subject of mercenaries in my writings on the Congo in the 1960s. That was a different realm and a different time.

I believe that the subjects of mercenaries versus contractors remains a valid linkage and a valid distinction. The leap from contractor to mercenary is neither broad nor distinct. It is there nonetheless.

For a look at my own dealings with what became a UN hired mercenary operation see my memoirs Journey into Darkness: Genocide in Rwanda on Amazon or Texas A&M University Press. I lay out how I arranged to get a private security contractor to address security in the refugee camps in eastern Zaire in 1994. That initial foray later expanded as things do iin the Congo to a semi-mercenary operation using Zairian military forces on a private contract to provide security for the humanitarian community inside the country of Zaire.

Finally I would say that Abu Buckwheat is in this case misinformed when it comes to the idea that the old days of the guns for hire mercs is gone. That is hardly the case. Mercs in one form or fashion have played large roles in Latin America's drug trade. In my old stomping grouns of eastern Zaire and Rwanda, the resurgent Hutu killers in eastern Zaire hired Serbian mercenaries as advisors and combatants. The Rwandan Defense Forces made short work of them. The Congo (old Zaire) remains an area where merc work is to be had if you know the right folks. I suspect that Zimbabwe will soon develop into a merc market if it has not already.

Best

Tom