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The Frenchman who pioneered the modern mercenary industry
- fsloth 5y agoThe book "Dogs of War" by Frederik Forsyth is an excellent semi-fictional description of a mercenary operation very analogous to the ones described in the article. The book is mostly concerned not with gratuitous violence, but hiring, logistics and finance in a legally gray-and-illegal territory and such is a fascinating read.
- JackFr 5y agoI remember reading that — I don’t remember the precise bureaucratic details - but the gist was if you tried to buy a single machine gun you wouldn’t be able to. “Of course they’re illegal for private citizens.” If you tried to buy 5000 machine guns, “Oh, just get this form filled notarized.”
- notRobot 5y agoI've had that book on my shelf for years, but have never found the motivation to read it until I read your comment, but now I'll be giving it a read ASAP. Thanks!
- jksmith 5y agoIn addition, "No Mean Soldier" by Peter McAleese. The autobio account of an SAS soldier turned mercenary.
- sec400 5y agoA documentary about the attempt to kill Escobar that he was involved in has just come out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nTCjg40WCw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nTCjg40WCw
- atlasunshrugged 5y agoFor a nonfiction read (although biased toward the authors perspective) I highly recommend Eeben Barlow's book on his founding and work via Executive Outcomes
- abvdasker 5y agoDogs of War is an incredibly racist and misogynistic novel (goes well beyond mere depictions of racism and misogyny). I'm not suggesting the book is valueless, but it's concerning to me that someone can give a full-throated endorsement of such a text without at least mentioning these problems. One can only be left to assume that someone giving such an endorsement either 1) didn't notice these issues due to a shallow reading of the text 2) doesn't care about them or 3) agrees with Forsyth's racist/misogynistic views
- quacked 5y ago"Sir, your Publication on the many Causes of War is most interesting; but I notised that in all the course of your Text ye made not a single Reference to our Lord, who is of course resposible for all things. I can only then assume that such a lack of References reveal ye as 1) ignorant of God and Christ which as an Englishman I can hardly believe of ye; 2) a heretic, such as a Catholic or even a Jew; or perhaps even worse 3) an Atheist, may God forgive me for uttering the Word."
- marktangotango 5y agoI recall the 1980 film inspired by the book to be "not bad", but it's been decades since I saw it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dogs_of_War_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dogs_of_War_(film)
- the_watcher 5y agoThat book is fantastic. I found it via Byrne Hobart, who accurately pointed out that it's as much about project management as it is about a coup.
- Nasrudith 5y agoCertainly an interesting account, it possibly hints at something else. Namely that lack of mercenaries were an anomaly unfortunately as forces conspire - people capable of violence and willing to take risks will want money and people with money will want other people to take the risk, and add layers of deniability. If I recall correctly part of the reason why mercenaries were excluded from Geneva Convention protections and banned via treaties was because of massive raiding, raping, and looting from continental rogue armies after their masters lost the ability to pay for them. That sort of "wildfire" and backlash made it acceptable to the nations to agree it would be better for them to not have it, similar to partisans and Free-Shooters. While they may technically wind up working both for and against the countries involved if they were condoned or not hints at what sorts of conditions they would prefer both them and their foes to have. There were all sorts of politics involved in the treaty. Even now PMCs are infamously "mercenaries but under offical backing of a recognized nation as opposed to any rando with cash". On a tangent it brings to mind a silly mental image of a cartel or street gang aiming for lawful combatant status.
- nradov 5y agoAt some point we'll probably see a cartel or street gang actually take complete control of one of the Central American countries. And then they'll technically become lawful combatants.
- MeinBlutIstBlau 5y agoThat's essentially what FARC was.
- Ancapistani 5y agoI understand that this situation already de facto exists in some parts of Mexico, where cartels have their own governmental system, complete with armed forces in uniform.
- mattmoose21 5y agoI find it interesting how detestable yet cool I find some of the people in these stories. Maybe it has to do with my love of the Metal Gear Solid games that the ideas of fighting foreign wars and switching sides has become a bit romantic.
- jareklupinski 5y agohmmmmm you may be onto something; the next time someone on my team starts quoting Kojima characters again, i'm just going to assume they're already choosing between offers at other companies haha
- wolverine876 5y agoWhy are multiple people making the same post. Is this a popular talking point somewhere?
- mattmoose21 5y agoI have no idea, maybe I commented on something that I felt was unique but turned out to be a common reaction. Kind of like when you see a lot of people making the same bad joke in the comments section of a post. They probably thought what they said was witty but it turned out to be a common first level thought. I am definitely not a bot... beep boop
- wellthisisgreat 5y agoWhile searching for some photos of people or events from the article I came across this site: http://www.babunga.alobi.cd/wp-content/uploads/ http://www.babunga.alobi.cd/wp-content/uploads/ I wish there were blog posts to go with the photos but seems like just images.
- ptha 5y agoIt appears that Gilbert Bourgeaud or "Bob Denard" may have been part of Katanga militias in the "Siege of Jadotville" (now also a film from Netflix). A militia force of about 3000 laid siege to about 156 Irish UN troops, who held out for 5 days before surrendering. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jadotville https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jadotville https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Faulques#Congo_Crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Faulques#Congo_Crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Denard#Early_career https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Denard#Early_career It's hard to confirm if he was there, Roger Faulques his friend and leader of the militia force certainly was.
- dmix 5y agoNo film has shown the power of ground attack aircraft better than that movie. It was only one old plane but it was frightening. Excellent film.
- ur-whale 5y agoIf you grok French, this is a pretty good documentary on Denard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAgzti0fyao https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAgzti0fyao
- qvrjuec 5y agoA little off topic, but I don't think grok is correct to use in this context. Understanding and grokking are different things
- cybert00th 5y ago"Here's What You Need to Remember: Men like Denard but perhaps a little less theatrical—many of them South Africans—took the next logical step. They founded businesses with boring-sounding names but a deadly purpose: to fight Africa’s nastiest conflicts on behalf of corrupt, inept governments, and for profit" I'm heartily sick and tired of the way white South African men are portrayed as the 'new bogeymen'. Each country has its good and bad men (and women for that matter), and if you could do a census I can almost guarantee the distribution would follow the usual Bell curve. Get your facts first, then you may distort them as you please. PS: I'm a white South African male
- schrijver 5y agoYou’re reading too much into it… that there were many South African mercenaries is a historical fact, they’re not stereotyping any population in that sentence. For what it’s worth, in the popular consciousness outside of SA, the white South African as a bogeyman probably peaked a long time ago, I would say around 1989 — when Lethal Weapon 2 was released with South Africans as the bad guys.
- panzagl 5y agoI guess you could nitpick as to how many of them were from Rhodesia instead of South Africa proper. But South Africans have certainly made a cottage industry out of bush war memoirs, so it's hard to be too nitpicky.
- hedgehog 5y agoThere's some basis. Executive Outcomes was in its day one of the premier private military contractors and formed largely out of outgoing military who served the regime. Any time a big organization gets downsized those people need to find jobs, at the same time there's a robust market for arms-length labor to take on dangerous and politically risky work. The US has probably been #1 for the last 20 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Outcomes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Outcomes
- ninja3925 5y agoFYI: I didn't read the racial taint in the sentence.
- animalgonzales 5y ago"Having served with the French Navy in the Algerian War, the ardently anti-communist Denard took part in the Katanga secession effort in the 1960s..." who woulda guessed
- atlasunshrugged 5y agoFor those who enjoyed this, Eeben Barlow (one of the first South Africans who eventually formed Executive Outcomes, one of the most famous PMCs) had written a book also titled Executive Outcomes that was long out of print but is now available for download on Kindle. It's about 300 pages too long but is a really fascinating look at his side of the story and is damning for international groups who responded to crises across Africa but did little (read UN intervention in Sierra Leone) or were outright harmful.
- MeinBlutIstBlau 5y agoIt's a shame for that price digitally. Physically it basically is priced to not be sold.
- atlasunshrugged 5y agoI know, it's an obscene price given the category of the book but I guess he's got a very small niche of people who are willing to pay a lot for his tell all. I personally found it worth it (for the digital one of course)
- e12e 5y agoFor a book pointing more forward, than looking back, I recommend "The Modern Mercenary: Private Armies and What They Mean for World Order" by Shawn McFate. Could probably use an update post Afghanistan / Syria etc. https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Mercenary-Private-Armies-World/dp/0190621087 https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Mercenary-Private-Armies-World...
- atlasunshrugged 5y agoI also really enjoyed that one - if you liked it I recommend Brose's Kill Chain and Helberg's Wires of War
- kryptonomist 5y agoAnd he died at 78 in his bed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Denard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Denard
- MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago[flagged]
- ruined 5y agoyou can't make a rights-based anti-universalist argument in favor of an attitude and framework like racism that is straightforwardly totalitarian and universalist. furthermore, it is totally normal to have a value system and then take efforts to make material reality reflect my value system. if a lot of people agree with me, it might even happen, maybe even against the will of people who disagree and hold a different value system. all people do this. real anti-universalism and your faux abstinence are both in fact just another kind of value system within this ecosystem. it's true that a value system does not have to be rational to dominate, but that is not an argument in your favor, it just emphasizes the necessity of aggressive activism and action against racists and their exposed weakness of irrationality. in closing, i highly value the destruction of things that i think are morally and ethically wrong. you can't fault me for having a different value system that demands i act against my enemies... for the other readers, this faux anti-universalism is a common neoreactionary talking point designed to subvert a weak conception of cultural diversity, by portraying oppressive policies as respectable cultural disagreements. i would encourage yall to recognize it when it appears. anti-universalism has utility, but this is a perversion.
- MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago> i highly value the destruction of things that i think are morally and ethically wrong. This logic right here is the antithesis to true rationalism. You act as though your reason is more sound than someone elses simply because you deem your ways as the "ultimate" way. A Muslim in Pakistan may not consider your form of justice as the same as a Sikh in Suriname. You just jump to conclusions that any affront to your rationality is an attack on values of "goodness for mankind" as a whole. It's absolutely no different than a religion. So while you may not be a Muslim, you may find many Islamic teachings abhorrent. But to certain Muslims, they see you as an infidel or as the heathenous one who is striving from a path of moral goodness. This is exactly why western liberalism is such an affront to the world over. It is filled with too many pompous white people who think that because they became successful in this system, they can extend their white savior complex to others by force. Simply through justification that they believe they hold the keys to true morality. Western liberalism is no different than the Catholic Church in the middle ages. Constantly abusing the witchhunt of morality upon others. Incessantly purporting that nobody else holds the keys and that any questioning of the belief is heresy.
- gricardo99 5y agoThe book "In the footsteps of Mr. Kurtz" [1], is a fascinating account of the post-colonial Congo region, which comes up several times in the OP article. 1 - https://www.amazon.com/Footsteps-Mr-Kurtz-Disaster-Mobutus/dp/0060934433 https://www.amazon.com/Footsteps-Mr-Kurtz-Disaster-Mobutus/d...
- wolverine876 5y ago> Surely no one realized it at the time, but the seeds of a new way of war were planted in the Congo’s rich soil at that time It's not hard to predict, and mercenaries are hardly new. Don't let leaders at the time or now off the hook for not expecting it. Wars have always resulted in unemployed soldiers that society either had to find work for, in peace or in another war, or they find work for themselves. From what I've read (not much) it was one reason for the Crusades - to give a lot of unemployed soldiers something to do, far away from home. People trained in Afghanistan by the US against the Soviets became Al Quada; Central Americans trained by the US in the 1980s became today's drug gangs; demobilized Iraqi soldiers became the insurgency and later many became part of ISIS. Many US soldiers from the War on Terror work for private contractors (at least some qualifying as mercenaries); many others come home and have a very hard time adjusting to civilian life, with tragically hide mental health and suicide rates as a result.
- JackFr 5y agoThat was also no small part of the thought behind the US GI Bill. People rememebered the post-WWI Bonus Army (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army) and were happy to send all the soldiers to college to avoid a similiar situation.
- wolverine876 5y agoSometimes I think we were so much more sophisticated in world affairs and war back then, and much of that has been forgotten. When people ridicule international institutions and the end of war as absurd idealism, it was the people with the most experience in war, who had seen it all in two world wars, who build those institutions and the modern, peaceful world. We're the absurd ones.
- kodah 5y agoI've never heard that interpretation. The Bonus Army was a result of WWI veterans demanding that Congress pay out war bonds early because the depression had devestated them economically. The president responded by sending some of the biggest names of soon-to-be WWII to tear down their camps and burn them to the ground with tanks and active duty infantryman. The biggest outcome of this is event is that active duty forces are sanctioned against being used on American Citizens on American soil. Congress never paid the war bonds out early and many of those people went back to war or their children did.
- eigengrau5150 5y ago[dead]
- akudha 5y agoThe one thing I could think of while reading the article, this guy Denard's story would make a great movie! Despite the obvious nastiness, he seems to have lived a colorful life. I know it is wrong to popularize such characters by making movies about them, but damn, such stories are interesting. I guess there is a reason bad boy stories (like Netflix's Narcos show) are popular
- wolverine876 5y agoI don't understand your point. Stories about bad people sell? That goes back to Bible and the Odyssey.
- akudha 5y agoYeah, stories about bad people sell much easier than stories about good people. How many movies and shows are there on Netflix about drug lords, serial killers etc vs saints and good people? The public has a weird fascination with bad people. It makes good TV. That is why the front page of a newspaper is filled with negative stories, gossips, murders, mayhem etc. Rarely does the front page features a doctor doing free surgeries.
- wolverine876 5y ago> How many movies and shows are there on Netflix about drug lords, serial killers etc vs saints and good people? There are plenty of popular bad guy stories, but I think that far overstates the case: The Bible and Quran are the biggest sellers and over a billion people (very rough guess) read them weekly, if not more often. Most stories, including in film, have positive protagonists. For action, consider LotR, superhero movies, etc. For history, most war movies, biographies, etc. Maybe your queue is different? :)
- akudha 5y agoYou're mixing religious text and fantasy with movies/documentaries based on real people. Those are two different genre. People will watch a movie on mother Teresa as well as a movie on Hitler (or some other monster). But I bet a lot more people would be interested in the bad person movie. This doesn't mean that they are bad people, it is just that generally, movies on bad people are more interesting to the masses than movies on good people. It is not my queue I am talking about (I watch good shows too). You can look at History channel, Netflix etc - and if you compare apples to apples, I bet movies/shows on bad people are a easier sell than movies/shows on good people.
- cconcepts 5y agoAm surprised sites like the one linked don't get dis-incentivized from running so many ads by aggregators like HN with some formula that essentially makes it harder for links with more ads to get to the front page? Maybe thats unfair and just "let the people decide" is the best method but 'wow!' am running adblock and that thing is still a sensory overload.