I agree with you on the conflict of interest that the mercenaries have, but I think that it extends to regular armies also. An army that doesn't fight is a bud

I agree with you on the conflict of interest that the mercenaries have, but I think that it extends to regular armies also. An army that doesn't fight is a budget that is claiming to be cut, and you can see that discussion taking place in several european countries. In the United States, however, they have wars to fight, and so the army and its space is a huge industry, with one client, the US government; and if there are no wars to fight, it will quickly collapse. There are in fact a lot of accusations that the military industry in the United States instigates action for that specific purpose. So they don't only keep alive the fire, as the mercenaries - they also push to start new ones! And I can tell you, the Army has more political force than mercenaries to do this.