This is a joke, right? I get the impression that Mr. O’Hanlon, like many journalists and authors out there, has completely written out of the dialogue any mention of PMC’s. It’s as if they have all committed to the idea that security contractors are a bad idea, and that somehow a reworking of the military structure will solve the problems of manpower issues for these types of missions.
I have news for you guys, kids these days are smart, and a program like this is still the military and it is still serving in a war zone. How is that different, other than calling it something different?
Further more, once you put these ‘safe and sane’ troops on the ground in the Congo, and they are confronted with a force of rebels that see an opportunity to go kinetic on this new style western force, what will these forces answer back with? Will this new peace force answer rebel bullets and bombs, with high velocity love letters and flower bombs? This kind of thinking is dangerous and idiotic to say the least, and I am highly skeptical.
Perhaps Mr. O’Hanlon should get some shared reality, and talk to Eeben Barlow of Executive Outcomes about what is required in these countries if we really care to keep some kind of peace?