Conscience

A professional soldier was a fool if he second guessed what he did in the heat of the moment. He was twice the fool if he permitted another person to act as his conscience. And he was an absolute idiot if he answered to that conscience.
– Henry Zeybel. Gunship

A soldier’s conscience which recognizes only the order and the exigencies of the moment…
– Michael Hoare. Mercenary

When you have a problem ask yourself two questions. First, can you do anything about it? Second, do you really care? If you can’t honestly answer yes to both questions, screw it.
– Henry Zeybel. Gunship

He’d vowed never to return… His time with the SAS had been one of the most challenging, and exciting, periods of hiss life, but it had also changed him forever. It was above and beyond being a soldier: the SAS had taught him to kill, and part of that training had been a dehumanizing programme which left him with a cold, hard place where his conscience used to be. It was only after he’d left the Regiment that he’d realized what he’d lost. What they’d taken away from him.
– Stephen Leather. The Long Shot

Interview with the Vampyr — a Sri Lankan Mercenary in Iraq

A private military contractor in Iraq (Ed Kashi/Corbis).

I walk into the bar at the Sapphire, knowing I’m early for this interview, but I don’t want to keep my contact waiting. He’s obviously a busy man, but has been convinced by a mutual friend to give me half an hour of his time.

The bar itself has a certain well-worn charm that reminds one of friendly little pubs in Europe — all dark wood, fake leather and dim, smoky corners. Except that there’s no smoke anymore. Sri Lanka’s draconian anti-tobacco laws have banished smoking to a glass-walled cage at the far end of the room. I curse softly and park myself in a cubicle, ordering a gin-and-tonic, and wait for the man.

The place is more or less empty — it’s not yet 6pm — and ten minutes later, I’m on my second G&T, when he walks in. Or at least I assume it’s him. I’ve no clue what he looks like, though he should recognize me since I mailed him the link to my blog the day before. It’s all a bit James Bondish, and I feel quite silly until he spots me and veers over to the cubicle.

Major Rohan — I’ve agreed to use only his first name, and not take any pictures — shakes my hand and sits down. He’s a big guy in his late thirties, close to six feet, but athletically built, with shortish hair and skin that’s negro black from long hours in the sun. He’s dressed in a short-sleeve button-down shirt and jeans, and looks exactly what he is — a businessman out for an informal drink.

The Hollywood Gun

A Spanish naval boarding party armed with the H&K G36E (Koalorka/Wikipedia)

The 5.56×45mm Heckler & Koch G36, Germany’s regular battle rifle, entered service with the Bundeswehr in 1995, gradually replacing the venerable H&K G3 assault rifle, after the German ministry of defence had rejected H&K’s earlier two offerings, the G11 and the G3-derived G41. Variants have since been adopted by the Spanish armed forces, as well as several law enforcement organizations. The G36 is probably the first totally new firearm in the last two decades (other than the Austrian Steyr AUG) to receive worldwide acclaim as well as commercial contracts. The world’s most popular and widely used battle rifles are almost all derivatives of older weapons; case in point being the Kalashnikov and M16 families, as well as the H&K roller-delayed G3 series. Britain’s L85 was the first brand new service rifle to arrive on the scene after the desert of the 1970s, however its initial lack of hardiness and overcomplication of design (interestingly the same criticisms leveled at the M16 in the 1960s) scuttled any chance of commercial success.

Privatisation & Loyalty in the War on Terror

Hessian mercenaries surrender to Washington at the Battle of Trenton in 1776. (Library of Congress)

A recent post by Indi on the correctness of allowing people with foreign interests to hold high military office got me thinking about the whole private military contract business. Coincidentally, I had just finished reading The Road to Hell by Brian Geddes, a British mercenary (or private military contractor as they are now called) in Iraq.Indi’s post basically pointed out that the SL Army commander, Gen Sarath Fonseka, the Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, and a few others who are US green card holders, cannot be trusted to hold such high positions as their loyalties could possibly be divided.

Regardless of whether Gota & Co are actually foreigners or not, I tend to think that nationality is beside the point when it comes to fighting a war — or cleaning up after it for that matter. The soldier of fortune or mercenary warrior has had a long career — one that parallels the history of the citizen soldier, both in length and quality. Mercenaries have been employed as far back in time as the 13th Century BC, when Pharaoh Rameses II employed 11,000 mercenaries. In the 3rd Century BC, Hannibal of Carthage used Spanish and French mercenaries in his conquest of Italy, and Roman Caesars hired Visigoths to serve as the Praetorian Guard. More recently, the British used Hessian mercenaries against George Washington in his War of Independence. Two of the biggest private armies in history were the British and Dutch East India Companies which carried out proxy wars on behalf of the British and Dutch rulers, and were commercially motivated. Other famous mercenary organisations like the French Foreign Legion and the Gurkha regiments have rightfully earned a ferocious reputation as fighting troops.