Have Gun, Will Travel

Have Gun, Will Travel

The concurrent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have left the United States government spread far too thin to effectively manage and maintain all of the intricies that a war requires of a military. This requires the U.S. to outsource many jobs in order to allow military personnel to effectively and efficiently succeed in their missions. This outsourcing is made possible by the availability of Private Military Firms (PMFs) and their ability to provide a wide range of military services, both combative and non-combative, in a reliable and cost effective manner. One of the major problems, however, is that these PMFs are not bound by military law, and colossal loopholes exist in U.S. extraterritorial law, which in turn leaves these companies free to conduct their operations with little moral concern or consequence. The U.S. Government must therefore create stringent laws that put more oversight on these Private Military Firms and strictly enforce punishments for human rights violations and war crimes.

"The end of the Cold War is at the heart of the emergence of the privatized military industry" (Singer 49). Due to the hyper-production of its military force, the collapse of the Soviet Union essentially left a free-for-all on the unregulated military market. When the state collapsed in 1989, it left a deluge of unemployed soldiers, millions of available weapons, and a vast surplus of military vehicles. Where once stood the Soviet Union, strong and powerful, a military vacuum suddenly took its place, with many Private Military Firms soon to rise from the embers. Elite military units were transformed, almost overnight, into private companies while keeping roughly the same hierarchical structure. "It is estimated that nearly 70 percent of the KGB entered the industry" (Singer 53). However, it was not only Soviet forces that found themselves in the unemployment bracket; many Western countries, such as the U.S. and Britain, no longer had a need for a huge military force. This resulted in massive military cutbacks on the global level, leaving the U.S., British, and apartheid-era African countries with significantly reduced military forces. "The end of it [Cold War] sparked a global chain of downsizing, with state militaries now employing roughly 7 million fewer soldiers than they did in 1989" (Singer 53).

Since then, Private Military Firms have developed into three distinct categories, being able to provide every military service under the sun, from cleaning personnel to combat batallions. The first category, "military provider firms, are defined by their focus on the tacticle arena" (Singer 92). These firms typically employ ex-elite soldiers such as U.S. Special Forces, British SAS, or Soviet Alpha troops. These firms also make use of armored vehicles, attack helicopters, jet fighters and gunboats - mostly of Soviet make. Military consultant firms comprise the second major category. These are "firms that provide advisory and training services integral to the operation and reconstructing of a client's armed forces" (Singer 95). Essentially, these firms modernized a client's military power, but