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I don't see why your comment would be unpopular. These are valid questions.There is no easy answer to them tho without understanding the bigger picture. When I
by Jamesbeam 10y ago
I don't see why your comment would be unpopular. These are valid questions.There is no easy answer to them tho without understanding the bigger picture.
When I was young joining the army in my country was an easy decision, the money was good and it was a safe job. Recruiters would tell you that you could make an impact on the world and make it a better place for everyone while making enough money to easily fund your kids future and live a good life if you do the job long enough and are willing to put blood, sweat, and tears in.
But within a few years, I realized that what I did had no impact whatsoever, and the money was only good if you went home in one piece or alive at all.So I quit and specialized in tracking down war criminals in the private sector.
It is a long way before you see some of these people in front of the International Criminal Court for example. Many don't even make it there.
You ask how I could continue the work I did?
I had the chance to talk to these people sometimes for an hour sometimes for days before handing them over and one question I always asked was "What do you think would have been necessary to keep you from doing what you did?" and most of the answers boiled down to "nothing, besides a bullet maybe".
And that is exactly the reason why people like me are necessary. You can't sit down at a table with these guys and talk them out of it. There is real evil in this world. And these people are the living proof.
They think they are invincible and above the law and when you see how long it takes to bring these people to justice you begin to understand why they think that way.
Now I'm retired. So no, I am pretty sure the cause of my death will be natural some day.
As far as I'm concerned I don't need to write a book about what or how I did what I did. And outside those trials, my name will never be mentioned anywhere.
But the families of all the people I worked with that died and all the families and mothers that suffered by losing their sons and daughters and husbands because of the war crimes that person ordered will get a little bit of peace, knowing that no matter how rich or powerful you are there are people coming for you willing to give their lives so you rot in jail for what you did.
- jonah 10y agoWho funded your work, if I may ask?
- MrBuddyCasino 10y agoI would be very interested in that as well. Also: maybe you should write that book.
- patrec 10y agoI was completely unaware that there is a long established market for mercenaries to catch war criminals. Can you say more about clients and rules of operation? What is the relationship to the multi-billion mercenary sector (Blackwater/Academi etc.) the Bush administration created to make its wars more palatable?
- ptaipale 10y agoI don't see how the "mercenary sector" was created by Bush administration. For instance, Blackwater got its first government contract after the USS Cole bombing, from the Clinton administration.
- nylsaar 10y agoExcellent point. I wonder if those who equate Blackwater with "mercenary sector" would also equate U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command with "mercenary sector" as well?
- patrec 10y agoI don't know. Is the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command a private entity that sends armed employees or contractors to war zones to fulfil military roles?
- patrec 10y agoI should have phrased this better. There have always been mercenaries of course, and I believe there has been an uptick in US government use after the end of the cold war under Clinton. I'm however under the impression that the growth since 2001 has been unprecedented, as is the fact that the number of private sector employees deployed to war zones by the US government outstripped military deployments. So a qualitative change seems to have taken place during that time, even if it was just the continuation of an earlier development. I could easily be wrong though, because I'm having trouble finding precise and dependable information online – if you have some good pointers about the growth and changed role in US politics of mercenaries, I'd be interested in reading them.
- 13of40 10y ago> I had the chance to talk to these people ... > They think they are invincible and above the law ... Just out of curiosity, not saying any side is good or bad, but did you ever run into someone whose rationale was "Because I was 19, Dude. Because, but for the grace of god, it would have been me in the ditch with a bullet in my head."?
- Jamesbeam 10y agoDisclaimer: This comment might be disturbing for you, so feel free to skip it. Yes, I heard a lot of excuses, especially in Africa. But it never really mattered to me in a way that I would have said to even a single one ok I let you go and you disappear and spend the rest of your life doing good to make up for what you did. Some things these people did are beyond what any normal person can imagine. If a 20 yrs old is in tears and tells you that he was high and ordered to do what he did three years ago and that he was a child soldier for most of his life, then it's just human to feel bad for what happened to him. No kid on the planet should go through that kind of hell. But if you make the decision to shoot a man in the stomach and let him bleed out, then behead his kid in front of his eyes and rape his wife in front of a dying man before cutting her throat because you claim you were ordered to do so, that is the end of a chain of bad decisions that you made in the past. I did not walk a single mile in his shoes, so I can't judge if I would have acted differently in his situation with a past like that and being drugged out and forced to do horrible things even before that. But if you make this decision then you also need to be aware of the consequences.