I just saw an amazing documentary on the History channel about the global resurgance of the worlds second oldest profession, mercenaries. Post Cold War de-mobilizations and 3rd world instability has made the Private Military Company a 100 Billion Dollar industry. In fact in Iraq there it is estimated that one in ten people on the ground work for a PMC and not a government. This actually isn't a new phenomenon. Governments have used mercenaries to supplement standing armies since humans have been fighting wars. What seemed to have fallen out of fashion in the 20th century is now making a big comeback in the 21st century. I like it or not we are probably likely to see a lot more of this in the future. What do you all think of the use of PMCs?

Wouldn't be so bad if the companies who pay the mercenaries weren't also related to the government officials who started the war in the first place.

Wouldn't be so bad if the companies who pay the mercenaries weren't also related to the government officials who started the war in the first place.

Who else do you think is going to use the armies? The few private companies that would use such services are usually dealing in government contracts. In other parts of the world, the privately funded armies may not be part of the people's government, but they are probably the closest thing to the "real law" of the area. I know many of the rich Saudis have a few closet armies in their backyard.

In addition, if the company is based in the US, they usually have to have a lot of paperwork out of the way for them to be legal and carry all those nifty weapons, spy gear, aircraft, etc.