Iraq War: The role of mercenaries

Fdtate313 and I have been exchanging some thoughts about the use of private security companies in war zones. Steve Gilliard just posted something that gives a very good brief description of the potential problems this can cause the United States: Contractors Away 04/02/04. (Gilliard's uses some blunt language to make his points. But the points are excellent.)

The four "civilian" victims of the brutal killing/mutilation/exposure incident in Fallujah were employees of a private security firm, i.e., essentially mercenaries. Gilliard writes:

While everyone is chattering about mercinaries [sic] in Iraq, no one is drawing the obvious conclusion, American troops are going to get killed avenging mercenaries making 10 times more than they did for the same jobs. ...

One other point: there is no way to tell the difference between SF/SEAL troopers and mercs. They use the same cars, weapons and gear. They all wear civilian clothes as well. The Iraqis who ambushed the two cars could have thought they were going after a Special Operations team. There is no way to tell the difference without asking.If you want to know why this hasn't been a big story so far, the media in Iraq hires the same companies. Baghdad is so dangerous that any high profile Western reporter risks their lives without hired guns by their side. The USG is not their only client, by far.

It's worth noting that the fig leaf of legal justification for treating alleged Taliban and al-Qaeda troops captured during combat in Afghanistan as "enemy combatants" to whom the laws of war do not apply hangs on the claim that they did not fight in uniform. Having US soldiers go into combat duty in civilian clothes raises a real question in that regard, since some Special Forces were also used that way during the conventional combat phase of the Iraq War.

One thing he does not mention in this particular post is that using mercenaries in civilian clothes also further blurs the distinction between humanitarian workers and combatants, much to the detriment of the former. The same is true for putting on-duty US soldiers in civvies.