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Hmph.
Some estimates place as many as 15,000 mercs in Iraq, others as few as 1,500. Regardless, they are playing a significant role in the conflict, which is disturbing enough without quibbling over numbers. Mercenaries are not subject to the same kind of controls that soldiers are - they are accountable only to their HR department, and occasional performance reviews. They exist in a grey space of law and are rarely prosecuted for their crimes, which statistics suggest are very common. Sexual and violent misconduct is epidemic in times of war, but tends to increase dramatically when poorly run mercenary outfits are involved.
Mercenaries are most often former military, paramilitary or police personnel, with years of training behind them, so it's certainly possible to see tight, professional units. However, there is no incentive for the mercenary to go home and little to no incentive to behave himself (they are overwhelmingly male). Staying in means a good paycheck and keeping things under control, however you do it, means a bonus. Some mercenaries make $1000 a day.
'Security Guards' from Blackwater Intl. have been retained to guard oil fields and food convoys. Blackwater mercenaries are now being counted among the USA's honoured dead. Paul Bremer's bodyguard is a Blackwater merc. Tom DeLay's wife works for the company, which has a number of other contacts in the House and Senate.
I'm reminded of a discussion in one of my IR class, about the difference between a good peace keeper, a good peace maker, and a good soldier:
A good solider kills his enemy, in order to defend his people.
A good peace maker stops conflicting sides from killing each other, and acts to protect bystanders.
A good peace keeper helps people in tense situations to relax, by acting as a buffer.
You don't send a soldier to do a peace keeper's job, because he is is a killer and his reactions will be vastly out of proportional to what the situation requires. You don't send a peace keeper to do a soldier's job, because he will not be sufficiently ruthless, or capable of the necessary dissociations. A peace maker, which is what is necessary in places like Afghanistan or Iraq - places which have been purposely destabilized and essentially annexed by outside powers - someone who is somewhere between a soldier and beat cop.
The absolute last kind of person you want is a mercenary, who's only loyalty is to his paycheck, and has no vested interest in seeing the conflict resolved.
I edit and help plan essays occasionally, for my fellow undergrads. Can I just ask -- what is it about the undergrad mindset, that makes blatantly ripping off a well-regarded bit of critique, a brilliant idea?
I swear, if I read one more first year Comm or Women's Studies paper calling Buffy: the Vampire Slayer antifeminist, because Buffy fights evil in a miniskirt and heels, I'll scream. Funny that these papers tend to focus on season one, ignoring our heroine's later, more practical sartorial choices, and rarely engage with the idea that Buffy is a very young teen herself. Of course S1 Buffy is insecure, wants to be a popular, normal girl, with a popular, normal boyfriend. Of course she wants to wear cute skirts and heels - her femininity is being questioned every time she stakes a vampire.
Even in the later seasons she retreats into corporate femininity as a defense mechanism and obsessively rejects singlehood because she doesn't need a man in any practical sense. Giles is both her father figure and her mentor, but he isn't the full-on macho masculinity that Angel, Riley and Spike represent. Xander fills a more typically 'feminine' role in the group than Buffy, or Willow. Note that Angel, Riley and Spike are all ultimately found to be emotionally lacking in someway, then shuffled off screen. Spike, of course, gets to come back, again and again, every time a little more nuts, trying to please one woman or another, only to die, in order to aid the ultimate 'girl power' victory over evil. The role reversal there isn't just startling - it's typical. And the more Buffy tries to deny her power and independence, the more she screws up herself and everyone around her.
Buffy is the modern 'post-feminist', believing that since women's lib happened, and we're all equal now, she can just wear cute heels, let her man be a man, fight evil by night and remain secure in her right to choose, without ever bothering with that feminism thing. Buffy is a criticism of the notion that a female hero must be beautiful and vulnerable, as well as strong. She's a strong indictment of the way women continue to fear themselves and their power.
Or, maybe not. But why isn't a bright undergrad making that counterargument? ^_-
On the subject of contested statistics, I read four articles yesterday, each of which gave me a different percentage for women in North America who've had abortions. Lowest was 14% and highest was 50%. I'm very curious as to what the actual numbers look like. *grumbles*
Food for thought: abortion providers are aging, and there are very few younger doctors to take there place, when they retire. Few schools are paying much attention, these days, to this most shameful *cough* aspect of reproductive medicine. More time, on average, is spent on Viagra.
Mercenaries are most often former military, paramilitary or police personnel, with years of training behind them, so it's certainly possible to see tight, professional units. However, there is no incentive for the mercenary to go home and little to no incentive to behave himself (they are overwhelmingly male). Staying in means a good paycheck and keeping things under control, however you do it, means a bonus. Some mercenaries make $1000 a day.
'Security Guards' from Blackwater Intl. have been retained to guard oil fields and food convoys. Blackwater mercenaries are now being counted among the USA's honoured dead. Paul Bremer's bodyguard is a Blackwater merc. Tom DeLay's wife works for the company, which has a number of other contacts in the House and Senate.
I'm reminded of a discussion in one of my IR class, about the difference between a good peace keeper, a good peace maker, and a good soldier:
A good solider kills his enemy, in order to defend his people.
A good peace maker stops conflicting sides from killing each other, and acts to protect bystanders.
A good peace keeper helps people in tense situations to relax, by acting as a buffer.
You don't send a soldier to do a peace keeper's job, because he is is a killer and his reactions will be vastly out of proportional to what the situation requires. You don't send a peace keeper to do a soldier's job, because he will not be sufficiently ruthless, or capable of the necessary dissociations. A peace maker, which is what is necessary in places like Afghanistan or Iraq - places which have been purposely destabilized and essentially annexed by outside powers - someone who is somewhere between a soldier and beat cop.
The absolute last kind of person you want is a mercenary, who's only loyalty is to his paycheck, and has no vested interest in seeing the conflict resolved.
I edit and help plan essays occasionally, for my fellow undergrads. Can I just ask -- what is it about the undergrad mindset, that makes blatantly ripping off a well-regarded bit of critique, a brilliant idea?
I swear, if I read one more first year Comm or Women's Studies paper calling Buffy: the Vampire Slayer antifeminist, because Buffy fights evil in a miniskirt and heels, I'll scream. Funny that these papers tend to focus on season one, ignoring our heroine's later, more practical sartorial choices, and rarely engage with the idea that Buffy is a very young teen herself. Of course S1 Buffy is insecure, wants to be a popular, normal girl, with a popular, normal boyfriend. Of course she wants to wear cute skirts and heels - her femininity is being questioned every time she stakes a vampire.
Even in the later seasons she retreats into corporate femininity as a defense mechanism and obsessively rejects singlehood because she doesn't need a man in any practical sense. Giles is both her father figure and her mentor, but he isn't the full-on macho masculinity that Angel, Riley and Spike represent. Xander fills a more typically 'feminine' role in the group than Buffy, or Willow. Note that Angel, Riley and Spike are all ultimately found to be emotionally lacking in someway, then shuffled off screen. Spike, of course, gets to come back, again and again, every time a little more nuts, trying to please one woman or another, only to die, in order to aid the ultimate 'girl power' victory over evil. The role reversal there isn't just startling - it's typical. And the more Buffy tries to deny her power and independence, the more she screws up herself and everyone around her.
Buffy is the modern 'post-feminist', believing that since women's lib happened, and we're all equal now, she can just wear cute heels, let her man be a man, fight evil by night and remain secure in her right to choose, without ever bothering with that feminism thing. Buffy is a criticism of the notion that a female hero must be beautiful and vulnerable, as well as strong. She's a strong indictment of the way women continue to fear themselves and their power.
Or, maybe not. But why isn't a bright undergrad making that counterargument? ^_-
On the subject of contested statistics, I read four articles yesterday, each of which gave me a different percentage for women in North America who've had abortions. Lowest was 14% and highest was 50%. I'm very curious as to what the actual numbers look like. *grumbles*
Food for thought: abortion providers are aging, and there are very few younger doctors to take there place, when they retire. Few schools are paying much attention, these days, to this most shameful *cough* aspect of reproductive medicine. More time, on average, is spent on Viagra.
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