Mercs in Spaaaaace

Allan said:
May I point out that mercenaries used as soldiers throughout history has
been a mixed bag, success wise? Dying for your country is one thing,
dying for a paycheque is something else. I'm far from convinced that
mercenaries in UN pay would work.

[Tomb] Yes, they have. Some have been incredibly effective and loyal,
others have been a right royal threat to whatever nation they were hired
by. But one has to look at the way these units were formed, how they
were lead, the rules (or lack thereof) they operated under, their
motivations, how they were paid, the precautions taken by the hiring
states, etc. Most of these factors differ from what we're now seeing the
UN talk about. 

What they're talking about today is professionally recruited, trained
and led formations, operating under international conventions, receiving
a gauranteed paycheck* from a stable international power (and note there
is no easy way for them to seize the source of this revenue), and
possibly facing the wrath of the international community (and real
militaries) if they do anything untoward (as well as Tribunals and loss
of future work). 

We're not talking about homeless hire-swords who are going to seize a
city-state because the Prince was dumb enough to let more of them into
the state than he had gaurds and no one would do anything to stop it.
We're not talking about poorly trained rabble that might melt away at
the first sign of a conflict, that might just as well pillage and rape
the people they are supposed to help, etc. We're not talking about
formations led by generals out to become Princes. And we're not talking
about people operating beneath international scrutiny. Nor about a unit
afraid it won't get paid as long as it does its duty, even if things
don't work out. 

These are _huge_ differentiations in almost every aspect. About the only
aspect of the similarity of today's plans to historical mercenary usage
is the fact both got paid and both were combat capable. Otherwise,
things diverge. 

Private Military Corporations (PMCs) with boards of directors and
shareholders who are subject to International Law, Missions which
automatically have UNMOs accompanying them, PMCs that know they'll get
paid so they don't have to worry about seizing diamond mines, etc. to
gaurantee a paycheck, PMCs that know that their boss is the
International Community through the UN, and PMCs that are headquartered
mostly in G8 countries with recruiting, training, auditing, etc
(including, I shouldn't be surprised in the future, probably ISO audits
on how they do their business) - these are not your Great Grandad's
Bands of Freebooters. 

The UN isn't talking about just hiring _anyone_. 

And quite frankly, even if some of the people or units were less than
perfect, they'd still be better (in most cases) than widespread genocide
or ferocious famine, which is some of the types of situation they'd be
used to head off. 

Tomb
* - Note, I'm not unaware the UN may have paycheck-delivery issues. This
is one of the points that has to be addressed obviously for the concept