Once upon a time, politics by other means took the form of war between state-sponsored armies. Then along came the creeping tide of international terror, whose practitioners play by different rules. Terrorists have little use for top-heavy chains of command, cumbersome procurement procedures, and pesky government oversight. They eschew conventional rules of engagement and international codes like the Geneva Conventions. Faced with such an agile enemy, beleaguered states are turning to a force that operates under a similar lack of constraints: private military contractors. Once the hired guns settle into the trenches, though, it can be hard to get them to leave.
The role of private companies in Iraq has been widely reported. What hasn't gotten so much play is that, taken as a whole, contractors make up the second-largest armed force there, after the US military. Although this "army" is mostly on the Pentagon's payroll for now, it doesn't fly any flag or belong to any state. It's a multiethnic, for-profit, postnational force, and its sole agenda is to mind the bottom line. It has no incentive to stand down as long as there's money to be made. It's not afraid of terrorists, and whatever passes for an Iraqi government in the future will likely live at its mercy.
Sierra Leone's experience is instructive. During the mid-1990s, the government called in South African company Executive Outcomes to chase rebels out of its diamond mines. The firm dislodged the insurgents in a mere 11 days, and was rewarded with a 40 percent share of the mining concession. Along the way, a British intelligence report noted that EO - having expanded into oil-rich Angola, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Sudan, and Uganda - was becoming a potent regional force, "capable of exercising real power." In 1999, South African authorities dissolved the company, citing a law barring citizens from mercenary activities. The staff simply went to work for an affiliated British outfit, Lifeguard Security. Not long afterward, another EO offshoot known as Sandline was accused of importing 35 tons of Bulgarian-made AK-47s in defiance of a UN resolution aimed at quelling the violence.
As goes Sierra Leone, so may go Iraq. Jordanian terror master Abu Musab al-Zarqawi isn't likely to quit blowing up Shiites in Iraq, and the contractors also have no reason to leave. Second only to Saudi Arabia in proven oil reserves, this ancient territory is too profitable for world markets to abandon, no matter what the locals do or say. Oil is the universal contraband, heroin for squares. Even the UN was on the take for Iraqi oil.
The US military may hastily fold its flags and officially pull out. The contractors most directly paid by the Pentagon (including BDM International, Blackwater, Halliburton, Kellogg Brown and Root, MPRI, and Vinnell) may leave, too, although no one should be surprised if they simply change their logos before returning to soak up loose cash in some different guise. But there are other outfits working in Iraq that are likely to stick around - like South Africa's Erinys, a force organized by former apartheid tough guys. Erinys doesn't prate about democracy or social betterment but simply guards oil pipelines. These troops aren't conquering anybody and they aren't liberating anybody. They exist to keep the oil moving, and they'll stay for as long as it pays.
If anything arises in Iraq that looks like a government - the relatively peaceful and together Kurdish ministate, for example - the mercenaries can simply submit bids to serve as its army and police force. And, if the flags are gone, why should such an offer be refused? If superpowers or international treaties fail to give you security, you have to purchase it.
Contractors today are multinational, owned and run by former presidents, prime ministers, generals, and spooks of many nations, and their rank and file are drawn from around the globe. The Spanish army has left Iraq, but swarms of new hires are ambling in: former Chilean soldiers, Chechnya vets, French Foreign Legionnaires, Gurkhas - a motley group of armed employees every bit as multiethnic as those of, say, Sony or Shell.
If wars for oil are bad and terror is worse, this Coalition of the Billing is a logical blend: global free-marketing at gunpoint. It's above the law, beyond the law, and worst of all, irreplaceable and utterly necessary to power the planet's nations, cities, and homes. We've suffered terror without a country. Welcome to war without flags.
Email Bruce Sterling at bruces@well.com.VIEW
>
When will we really be able to talk to our PCs?
AOL Owes Me $86,000 - At Least
Coalition of the Billing
