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.