Extract
Private security contractors in Iraq violate laws of war.
I. INTRODUCTION
When private security contractors killed eleven Iraqis in a shootout in Baghdad, the Iraqi Prime Minister called it criminal. (1) Security contractors called it "by doctrine," meaning they returned fire in order to protect their lives and their client. (2) A United Nations group called them mercenaries. (3) In any case, the murky legal status of private military contractors had legal commentators calling them something else: immune from prosecution. (4) This Note argues that private military contractors can be held liable for their actions under the jus cogens of unlawful civilian combatants. (5) Part II places private military contractors in their proper historical context, neither soldiers nor civilians, nor technically mercenaries. (6) In Part III, this Note discusses the applicable laws of armed conflict that prevent civilians from engaging in hostilities. (7) Part IV describes the Iraq war, and the unprecedented use of private contractors. (8) Finally, Part V provides an analysis of how international law could be applied to private military contractors. (9) II. HISTORY A. An Abridged History of Fighting for Money The mercenary trade dates back thousands of years. (10) Examining the history of the mercenary trade is helpful to understanding the pedigree of the modern private military firm (PMF). (11) In common parlance, mercenaries are soldiers who fight for money rather than loyalty, and do so in the service of a foreign state. (12) 1. Foreign Soldiers, State Militaries When one state rents its armies to another, the embattled state gets an affordable fighting force while the providing state is relieved of the cost of maintaining an army, and they receive money for the exchange. (13) King George sent 30,000 "Hessian" soldiers to America to augment his national troops trying to put down the rebellion in the American colonies. (14) While there is no question that the American revolutionaries, who would meet the Hessian soldiers on the battlefield, considered them "mercenaries," they would not be considered such today. (15) The soldiers themselves were serving in the proper army of their respective states, and that army was officially deployed to America by its sovereign. (16) 2. Soldiers of Fortune Today, bona fide "soldiers of fortune" are far more rare than rumor and myth suggest. (17) Unaffiliated individuals fighting other people's wars for profit were only common during the "decolonization period" in Africa. (18) Colonial governments and independence movements have both hired mercenaries. (19) Today, individual mercenaries have not totally disappeared, but their effect is minimal. (20) For one, there are tactical limitations inherent in a mercenary force. (21) Also, because mercenaries were often on the "wrong" side of African independence, they were a political or public relations liability. (22) The shadow cast by the decolonization mercenary cannot be ignored. (23) The current international laws regarding mercenaries were drafted with these men in mind. (24) 3. Civilian Contractors Using civilians to aid the military is not a new concept. (25) During the Civil War, President Lincoln hired civilian balloonists to gather battlefield intelligence from above. (26) For this service, they received the staggering sum of ten dollars a day. (27) This is one of the first examples of civilian contractors engaging in combat activities. (28) The United States employed balloons in the Spanish-American War, but by that point the Army had mastered the new technology and provided its own operators. (29) A similar pattern emerged with the advent of the airplane. (30) From 1911 until 1916, American civilians flew military missions for the Mexic...See the full content of this document
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