Pedigree Dogs of War

www.monbiot.com...

Another insightful piece by Mr. Monbiot..


"What is the legal difference between hiring a helicopter for use in a coup against a West African government, and sending supplies to the Chechen rebels? If there isn’t one, why isn’t Mark Thatcher in Belmarsh? Conversely, why aren’t the “foreign terrorist suspects” in Belmarsh Prison free and, like Mr Thatcher, at large in London? Why is an alleged engagement in foreign military operations called terrorism one moment, and business the next?

The question is an important one, for mercenaries are becoming respectable again. On Thursday Tim Spicer, Britain’s most notorious soldier of fortune, will be speaking at the School of Oriental and African Studies.(1) Last month, he addressed a conference at the Royal United Services Institute.(2) Last year, one of the companies he runs acquired a $300m contract from the United States government for security work in Iraq.(3) This man, who makes his living by entering other people’s conflicts, now moves through the establishment like the boss of any other corporation."

Seems the lable terrorist is just another lable after all. A lable only stuck on things "we don't like".

i agree,
really interesting piece...

Spicer is the mercenary who, in two years, caused two international incidents. The first was in Papua New Guinea in 1997, where he was hired by the government to recapture the island of Bougainville from separatists. Spicer was seized by resentful army officers, and the subsequent row brought down the Papuan government. The second was in Sierra Leone in 1998, where, with the covert blessing of British diplomats, he imported weapons for troops trying to restore an ousted government. The ensuing scandal almost forced the resignation of the British foreign secretary.

In principle, mercenaries are regulated by the 1870 Foreign Enlistment Act. It’s an offence to assist the armed forces “of a foreign state at war with any foreign state at peace with Her Majesty.” But no one has ever been prosecuted for it, and the act is widely regarded as useless. The government has avoided the need to test it by deciding that some people are terrorists, and therefore contravene a different set of laws, while others are businessmen, and therefore contravene no laws. Their classification depends on their nationality (British subjects, for example, cannot be detained without charge or trial in Belmarsh); the identity of the government they intend to fight or support; and their ideology (if they believe in what they are doing, they are terrorists, if they do not they are businessmen).

The government’s consultation paper reads like a PR brochure for the dogs of war. “There is nothing wrong with governments employing private sector agents abroad in support of their interests”; hiring mercenaries is “a cost effective way of procuring services which would once have been the exclusive preserve of the military” and “a strong and reputable private military sector might have a role in enabling the UN to respond more rapidly and more effectively in crises.”

Changing the subjesct completely souljah.. does you avatar say Bob Marley was born on the 3r of Feb?

Coz thats my bithday too ;p

no,
its the 6. february!
on sunday!

happy b-day tho!