PMC's part 1

   A PMC also known as a privatized military contractor is a company that staffs mercenaries to fulfill specific military contracts around the globe. Since becoming popular in the early to mid 1990's the industry has grown to over 100 billion dollar a year business. The US uses many different PMC companies to carry out contracts at specific times and in areas where it is cheaper and more feasible than to send our own military force. Most of what makes up the staff of these companies are para military personnel commonly from all around the world, for example, the USMC, United States Special Operations, SEALs, etc. When these companies are abroad they operate in a gray area between the UCMJ (uniform code of military justice) and mix of local and US civilian law. Not just countries employ PMC's for security purposes, private companies with interests abroad contract PMC's almost as much. As a matter of fact Exxon Mobil employs the largest outside group of PMC's known as "G4S" which happens to be the world's largest private security company. G4S as well as other PMC's that the US and Exxon Mobil employs have countless lawsuits and complaints pending as I type this. They have broken international laws of engagement and have an ever-growing list of humanitarian disasters piling up. This industry has exploded with demand so quickly that domestic and international laws have yet to keep up with the expanding demands of a global security company. There needs to be regulation set in place across the board in this sector before a large-scale humanitarian disaster occurs, by setting in place a PMC code of justice. A set of laws that govern the gray area of this sometimes shady industry. As it seems now PMC companies are not going away as they become more and more in demand in conflict zones and areas of energy exploration in places that are less than kind towards western-backed encroachment. I don't want to sound like I am completely against PMC's, I am only against the bad and the dangerously unregulated tendencies of a fledgeling industry on the rise.
   There are also questions to be asked towards the more sinister use of these companies to perform the "dirty work" of a country or company. Since the laws that govern a PMC abroad are vague at best, for example: an employee of Xe doesn't adhere to the UCMJ (he or she is not in the military) technically the contractor is a civilian, with a weapon the Geneva Convention calls this an "unlawful combatant". But, as we know the US and it's allies bend the rules for whatever is convenient for our interest at the time. So under international law, a contractor shooting someone is considered murder, but we overlook this fact because they are being paid by our government to secure our national interests.
   The United States government has recently disclosed the information regarding the 2006 figures for our military as well as the PMC budget. In 2006 it costs the US $400,000 to put one soldier, Marine, sailor, etc. in Iraq for one year. This figure totals up to be around 53.2 billion dollars for the year considering there were about 133,000 US troops in Iraq that year. Compare that figure with around 100,000 PMC's in Iraq in the same year at $445,000 per each contractor. The total comes to around 44.5 billion dollars. So basically we pay 12.5% more for these mercenaries for what? So they can go around shooting civilians and humiliating prisoners by leaking photos on the internet? No, there is another reason why we pay more for these PMC's, so they can act outside of the UCMJ and the fact that they have limited accountability. There have been allegations and there are several investigations into weapons smuggling and international arms dealing within the top PMC corporations. These accusations are what they are. A few years from now we might hear of a scandal here and there but if you've done the research and you are reading this now, you know that war is becoming a burgeoning industry where lives are traded for weapons, cash and drugs everyday.
    In closing I am aware that there are several large-scale natural and humanitarian disasters unfolding at this moment in time. I know we have to focus on helping rebuild hard hit areas among other issues, but we also have to focus on this growing concern. There is a lot of room to grow in this industry and even more room to seriously screw international relations up big time. Lets take a closer look at PMC reform and regulation before it's too late and the US government taxpayer is left holding the bag for a mass scale damage control situation.

Hyper-Capitalistic

   We live in a country that in some cases, depending on the amount of money that you have or the HMO you subscribe to is the difference between life and death. Extreme example: homeless man develops brain cancer, after collapsing on the sidewalk is found and brought to a nearby hospital. After doing a few hours of testing, the hospital knows the man has cancer because of the fact that it took him until he collapsed to actually get testing done, and sends him on his way without giving a diagnosis. Basically sending him on his way to go back to his cardboard plot and eventually die. A CEO of a major corporation knows years out that he is strongly at risk for a certain type of cancer, is given a specific lifestyle recommendation by one of the most respected Oncologists in the country and has a scheduled CT scan every 6 months to check his progression. Cancer solved. So is this extreme and hypothetical albeit necessary explanation of how money directly effects your health in this country a good segue into the point that I am trying to introduce? You decide.
   So we live in this 'hyper-capitalist' country. Where money is sometimes the only difference between life and death. We are in wars (our executive branch refers to them as 'conflicts') all around the globe. Spending billions upon billions of dollars each week and not seeing any positive cash-flow. In the grand scheme of things, and I use the term 'grand' lightly is there an endgame? Does it sound so cold to ask: "show me the money?" Can there be a heartless question asked about currency? Especially when the lives of our troops are lost everyday abroad. The point I'm trying to make here in too many words is: "in such a country where everything is run by money, profits and losses, where the lives of our soldiers are insignificant compared with a big-wig's vacation bonus, where's the silver lining? The gain? From an ideological standpoint, wheres the change? When you execute any idea and you have no endgame set in place, and your plan is confused with too many voices with different agendas, what is going to be the end outcome? Vietnam. It's almost as if when you gain incumbency, everything you learned about American history is wiped clean from you mind. Every mistake that we have made, instead of learning from, is repeated over and over. I am going to end with this, if we are primarily a capitalistic society, why aren't we making any money on our exploits? I don't want to seem cold, I'm just trying to gain some perspective and I hope that my angry rants that no one probably reads incites some perspective.

Around the world atm...

With several wars still being fought, stale conflicts in Lybia, North Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and possible flashpoints in the middle east currently developing, is there any real benefit to having all of our hands in all of these various regions? If so then it is definitely case by case basis, each area having its own significance, either for profit or governmental stability. Again our government can't seem to finish what it started. Just as it is abroad, our domestic policies are mired in legislation, layers of old laws are building up and hindering the processes and funding necessary to promote a good business ethic and economy in our great country. The sad truth is that a lot of law-makers push bills through either because they're being heavily lobbied or because they feel they only have a limited amount of time to leave "their mark" for their term in office. So as it happens, the law-maker, just tries to create policy no matter if it has relevance, rather just to put something through congress with their name on it. This is becoming a huge issue that no one is really talking about. These issues are discussed in a particularly interesting book by Philip K. Howard. The book is called "Collapse of the Common Good". In the book it explains on how our government is chock full of dusty laws and policies that have no relevance in our modern times but are impossible to repeal because of the protocol backing them. The truth is, that in our great democratic architecture, it is much easier to pass a bill than to repeal a law. This flaw undermines important new legislation and basically slows the entire legislative process to a halt. Big reasons why we actually can't pull out of these conflicted areas around the world reflects what we can't accomplish on the home front... an old dusty democratic system. What am I calling for? Socialism? No. I'm just suggesting that we start over. Rebuild our democracy from the foundation up with no earmarks and pet projects, no kickbacks and special clauses. Just the way it was built back in 1775, just with all the kinks worked out. Is that so hard to ask? Eventually no one is going to be able to get anything done in our government because of all of these "grandfathered" laws and policies, and basically it is time for a change!

Welcome! - Bienvenue! - Bienvenidos! - Wilcomen!

Hello! I was reading the news on ap.org this morning and I had some passionate feelings rush over me. This has been happening a lot; not just lately but everytime I read something that strikes a personal cord. Basically what I'm trying to type in as little characters as possible is that I have a big mouth and not enough people to spout at so I created this blog. I hope that you follow and use this blog as a place to voice / vent your comments and concerns about everything American and International from politics to food. Anything at all really. I think I came to the realization today that the 420 character limit on Facebook just wasn't enough to express my complete way of  thinking these days. Enjoy!