Comments (10)

• Curt Howland

  CMB, the President can't deploy government military without Congress sticking its nose in, at least eventually. PMCs provide a quick and easy way to simply "contract out" the work on a lark.
  

  Unless I am completely mistaken, much of the American "combat" forces in the drug interdiction effort outside of the US are "private" contractors.
  

  So the Executive Branch has discovered the usefulness of outsourcing.
  

  When Sulla leads his legions across the Potomac, we'll all know history repeats.

  Published: March 31, 2006 12:07 PM

• Reactionary

  In Ancapistan, the military hired by the plutocracy will be extremely efficient.

  Published: March 31, 2006 1:47 PM

• Dick Clark

  CMB: No one would argue that innovation cannot take place in a bureaucracy. Mikhail Kalishnikov is but one example of a creative genius whose innovations were made at the behest of a socialist state. State militaries employ effective tactics in many cases because at least some of the people that work for state militaries want to be soldiers, airmen, etc., and are interested in military theory enough to make novel changes to the last generation's tactics.

  I would argue that the flexibility of Blackwater USA, et al. in the PMC business makes them better able to quickly become useful in a particular tactical environment. Feedback from your in-the-muck personnel can affect specific plans for future endeavors by the organization if it is dynamic. Bureaucracies just don't have the right incentive structures in place to rapidly, reliably, and efficiently adapt to new situations.

  My point is not that Blackwater USA is necessarily some bastion of the free market. Rather, my post was meant to show that even in the area of protection services—the services perhaps most often cited as making a government necessary—private organizations are simply more efficient at producing the service.

  Published: March 31, 2006 1:53 PM

• Dick Clark

  Curt: You are right about PMCs doing a lot of drug interdiction stuff. There are a least a few companies that do marine interdiction work. DynCorp (now a subsidiary of CSC) also does a lot of aviation work in South America defoliating coca fields, marijuana fields, and (occassionally) food crop fields.

  Published: March 31, 2006 1:58 PM

• averros

  Reactionary - and in Demagogueland, a clever put-down trumps a rational argument.

  Go back to your troll cave, buddy. There's nobody to impress with your antics here.

  Published: March 31, 2006 5:29 PM

• David C

  Hmm, perhaps we should hire one? Pool some money, and kick out some tiny third world murderous tyrant that nobody cares about. Install a government that is forced to use a gold currency, whose constitution mandates free trade of goods and labor, respect of property rights, mandates privacy especially of employment and income, a real right to bear arms, and specifically forbids and criminalizes:
  
  social security and other mandated retirement schemes
  any attempt to impose a mininum wage
  public funded medical care
  publicly funded schools
  publically funded/coerced wars on drugs
  publically funded/coerced attacks on personal vices such as gambling and prostitution
  and publicly funded care for the poor
  
  

  Published: April 1, 2006 9:32 PM

• TLP

  Wasn't Blackwater involved in some sort of corruption scandal lately?

  Published: May 16, 2008 9:54 AM

• Owen

  Exactly how is Blackwater more efficient that the US military?

  I am not questioning whether they are, but why they are. Therein you may find that they do not have many of the safeguards and necessary mechanisms in place to adequately repreent and defend a country.

  What I am suggesting is that what they 'economize on' may be essential items in a government military force.

  Published: May 16, 2008 10:07 AM

• Frank White

  What sort of paperwork to I have to file to become a one-man Private Military Corporation? Will I be allowed to buy machine guns once I fill this paperwork?

  Published: September 27, 2008 3:47 PM

• Hater

  Frank, armaments and rules of engagement are dictated by the country who's paying for your contract. It's not a free pass to do whatever the hell you want.

  Too bad. Better luck trolling next time.

  Published: June 16, 2009 12:01 AM