Importance Of Private Army
The year is 2007 the setting is Iraq a country fresh from the war and still picking up the pieces a convoy of trucks is leading to a bomb explosion site at one point the men on the trucks get off they stop all other vehicles to let the trucks pass first all cars stop except one what follows is a massacre the men from the trucks fire at the car they fire at screaming civilians one of them continues to shoot despite warnings summon points a gun at him that’s when he stops. This is a true story it is called the Nissur Square massacre 17 people were killed 17 Iraqis and were the killers of American fighters who belong to a company called Blackwater. Now they are called Academy in 2007 were Blackwater a private military company in the United States and why am I telling you their story 15 years later because of this the Wagner Rebellion? Suddenly private armies are in the news you think private Army you think Wagner but it wasn’t the first the United States has been using such Fighters for years chances are you have not heard about them because they do not make it to the headlines like Wagner does but Russian or American what do these companies do why do governments support them and how did Blackwater help the U.S in Iraq more importantly why should you care.
History Of Private Army
In this article we will try to read between the lines the stated and the unstated the obvious and the hidden to bring you the full story all of us have assumptions about war especially about who fights a war the men and women in uniform in our minds they belong to an army and hence to a country so that is not always true National armies often do not fight every war so who fights them the likes of Wagner and Blackwater private military companies contracted soldiers they do not do it out of loyalty they do it for money and this is not a new comcept the ancient Egyptians had them the Pharaohs employed mercenaries there were Nubian archers Libyran Charities they fought the Egyptians the ancient Romans and Greeks used mercenaries too then we has the colonis powers theBritish the French and the Dutch They too had private armies they used them to expand their colonies so the parctice is old but it booed after the cold war that is because countries began downsizing their armies a lot of soliders are jobless so they joined private military companies especailly in the 90s you see stated were rushing to privatize the security too became a commodity something you could buy or sell which brings us to the private military industry of today the sector is unregulated there are very few rules the fighters are not considered solidiers as per internation law so what exactly are they ambiguous and that is their USP low wages no pensions and no rules they do all the Dirty work National armies are governed by laws they face investigations and trials for war crimes but private militries are not bound to tnay of this they give a government plausible deniability meaning you can hire and send these fighters into a conflict zone but you can deny responsibility for their actions.
What is what the Russians try to do in Ukraine which is also what the Americans did in Iraq with black water this company was founded in 1997 by a former Navy Seal this man Eric Prince the headquarters were in North Carolina why do they call it Blackwater it was named after the particularly dark groundwater near the headquarters so this private military company was set up it took part in a few conflicts here and there but what changed its fortunes was the war in Iraq it was the beginning of a golden era of military contracts in August 2003 Blackwater received its first Iraq contract it was worth 21 million dollars but kept a low profile the world learned about them only in 2004 that is when four of their fighters were killed in Iraq but the company kept growing by 2008. Blackwater was training some 40 000 people every year its Fighters were all over the world but mostly in Iran now you may have seen countless movies on the Iraq war they usually come from Hollywood and they glorify the role of the US army but hey do not talk about private armies and we can tell you Iraq was of full to them by 2007 there were 100 000 such fighters in Iraq most of them were black water fighters they were on a one billion dollars contract to protect American diplomats in fact one estimate says there were more than 160 000 private Fighters which is roughly equal to the total number of U.S troops in Iraq but his tory no just about the number it is about the role they played.
Role Of Private Army
Blackwater was doing everything for the Americans guarding facilities protecting high-value individuals training the military and carrying out critical operations this was Washington’s Dirty work department they were involved in multiple war crimes I just told you about the Nissan Massacre it was just one example of how you shoot down 17 innocent civilians because one car refuses to give you the way and what action do you face for this criminal prosecutions company rarely happens but in this case there were many headlines it ruled America and Iraq so the men involved were charged four of them were even convicted.
The role of backwaters is legal status their management their oversight and their lack of accountability in 2007 investigators from the U.S state Department traveled to Iraq and they found evidence of misconduct do you know what happened next black water turned on them one of the fighters threatened to kill an investigator a US state department investigator and soon these investigators were kicked out of Iraq why because Washington could not afford to upset Blackwater that is how desperately they needed them the issue massacre was heinous but it was not the only one there were rapes murders incidents of torture all brushed under the rug this is the legacy of Amrica’s private army a story of atrocities and state complicity. Today the world talks about the Wagner group the way they turned against Putin and what their ruthless fighters are doing in the conflict zone where they operate it is horrible and it must be clear to the whole world.
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