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Countries have long had laws about what sort of business mercenaries in or from that country are allowed to accept. That doesn't make mercenaries in or from th
by bigbubba 6y ago
Countries have long had laws about what sort of business mercenaries in or from that country are allowed to accept. That doesn't make mercenaries in or from that country 'not mercenaries.'
- meowface 6y agoI think there are still too many other differences to consider Northrop/Raytheon/Lockheed mercenaries. They're the core of the US military-industrial complex, but I still think they're effectively an arm of the US military and are much closer to contractors than mercenaries. A company like Blackwater is much closer to actual mercenaries - they're trying to build their own private, independent military-industrial complex, in a sense, by selling their services to existing complexes.
- bigbubba 6y agoIf your point is that some self-described 'defense contractors' are arms merchants rather than mercenaries, then I agree. 'Defense contractor' is still a euphemism in that case however. For this matter, Department of Defense is also a euphemism. It used to have the more honest name Department of War until that was changed in the late 1940s.