To fight the terrorists and insurgents who have dug in in remote areas of the planet, we need "soldiers of the future." These are professional fighters participating in expeditionary campaigns - specially trained, ready to solve non-standard tasks.
According to Forbes magazine, the most promising profession in the coming years is the universal soldier. Wars of the future will turn, according to the publication, into pinpoint operations to enforce peace and restore constitutional order. To fight the terrorists and rebels who have dug in in remote areas of the planet, we need "soldiers of the future." These are professional fighters participating in expeditionary campaigns - specially trained, ready to solve non-standard tasks.
NOT ARMY, BUT FOREIGN LEGIONS
This conclusion represents a typical West-centric view of the world. It reflects the trends in military construction that are taking place in the West, especially in Europe. It is not customary for us to notice these tendencies, because they contradict one of the fundamental theses of the Kremlin agitprop - about the terrible threat from the North Atlantic Alliance.
Meanwhile, in all European NATO countries (except Greece and Turkey, which are closed on each other), the process of a rapid reduction of "traditional" armies, designed to wage wars against other armies, is under way. The number of tanks and combat aircraft decreases very quickly, and the number of combat ships of the main classes is slightly slower. At the same time, the number of armored vehicles, transport aircraft and helicopters, and landing ships is growing. A large-scale war in Europe has been removed from the agenda. NATO is reorienting itself to conducting low-intensity conflicts (that is, essentially, police operations) in third world countries.
It goes without saying that such a fundamental change in the concept of military organizational development leads to a change in approaches to the manning of the armed forces and the training of personnel. Which fully fits into the psychological situation that is taking place in the West today (in the USA to a lesser extent than in Europe).
During the Cold War, all continental European armies were recruited. After the topic of the Soviet invasion of Europe lost its relevance, the Europeans (with rare exceptions) were relieved to get rid of it. The Anglo-Saxons did this much earlier, because for them, located across the seas and oceans, the threat of a direct invasion of their own territory never existed.
The absence of an external threat, the growth of prosperity and the erosion of values lead to the fact that in most Western countries the recruitment of recruits becomes impossible in principle (it is rejected by society; in addition, after the end of the Cold War, it has lost its meaning from a purely military point of view, since the need for large prepared reserve). But the transition to the hired recruitment principle, which took place in almost all continental European countries in the 1990s, did not become any panacea. The motivation of the servicemen is such that waging any kind of serious war becomes impossible, people simply stop going to the army. And in peacetime, the quality of the rank and file decreases markedly; those who could not find their place in civilian life enter the army."NVO" has already written about this in the article "Not a" professional army ", but an army of lumpen" (see issue of 23.10.09). In it, in particular, it was said that mercenary armies are not suitable in principle to defend their country, which was very clearly demonstrated in August 1990 in Kuwait and 18 years later in Georgia.
At the same time, a complete abandonment of the armed forces is not yet possible. First, for psychological reasons (this is somehow unusual). Secondly, in terms of politics, an instrument of external influence is needed. The task of the Western Armed Forces, as already mentioned, is police operations in third world countries. Extremely specific in nature and quite dangerous. Since very few citizens of Western countries today want to do this, becoming "universal soldiers", the authorities have two options - the hiring of foreigners in the armed forces and the privatization of the war.
The foreign legion (a gathering of thugs from all over the world, ready to be "universal soldiers") has long ceased to be a monopoly of France. In the United Kingdom army, for example, the share of citizens of the countries of the Commonwealth of Nations (until 1946 - the British Commonwealth of Nations) is growing rapidly. This does not mean the Gurkhas, thanks to whom Nepal did not get into any Commonwealth and with whom Britain acted according to the principle "if the enemy does not surrender, they buy him." This refers to the numerous representatives of the former colonies of Great Britain in Asia and Africa, who, instead of the British, Scots, Irish, who did not want to serve at all, came to fight to improve their standard of living and obtain the coveted British citizenship.
Similar processes are taking place in Spain, for which Latin America becomes a source of "legionnaires". The common language and similarity of mentality greatly facilitate the problem of recruiting Latinos, who also go to "fight" for a better life (their own, of course). They are not going to fight for anything else, since the Spanish army does not fight with anyone (the Spaniards left Iraq long ago, their participation in the Afghan campaign is purely symbolic).
But above all, the US military needs recruits, of course. Iraq and Afghanistan demand an increase in the number of personnel of the ground forces and the Marine Corps, bearing the brunt of the war and, accordingly, the greatest losses. However, the size of the American army and the ILC, on the contrary, is decreasing, since the citizens of the United States are not eager to increase the list of these losses. The exception is the lumpen, who do not care, and the criminals who go into the army purposefully, so that later the experience of street fighting, acquired in Asia, can be brought back to the cities of America.
For some reason, such a contingent is not very inspiring for the Pentagon. And here foreigners become salvation. Of course, the most desperate go to military service: the risk of dying is too great. But the prize - the citizenship of the United States - is also eminently tempting, and you can risk it.
MERCENARY CONTINGENT
Naturally, foreigners are sent to serve in the Western armies not in order to die, but in order to live, and well. Both the living conditions and the "hardships and deprivation of service" in these armies are much more pleasant for them than everyday peaceful life in their own countries. The possibility of death is considered an acceptable side risk. Such motivation of personnel makes the army, to put it mildly, unstable in the event of a truly serious war. In addition, the level of education of foreigners is usually very low, which also reduces the quality of their armed forces.
Here, for some reason, the history of Ancient Rome is recalled. In his famous legions, only Roman citizens who had been called there for centuries could serve. This, by the way, was considered not just a duty, but a kind of honorary right that not every inhabitant of both the city on the Tiber and Italy had. And then the army became hired, but for a long time it was practically invincible, ensuring the expansion of the state and the defense of its borders. Then more and more people from other regions and lands began to appear in it. In the end, they completely replaced the "natural" Romans and natives of the Apennines. After which the Western Roman Empire collapsed under the blows of the barbarians.
True, the current version of the set of "universal soldiers" gives rise to analogies not with Antiquity, but with the Middle Ages. We are talking about the privatization of the war, about the rejection of the state monopoly on violence. Moreover, the enemy of the armed forces of the state is now much more often not a "normal" regular army, but guerrilla and terrorist groups. That is why the popularity of private military companies (PMCs) has grown so dramatically.
The contingent of mercenaries in PMCs is actually a real professional army. It consists of professional assassins. These people, as a rule, do not differ much from criminals in their mentality. They just "streamline" their inclinations, legalize them.
Mercenary armies have existed throughout the history of mankind, but in the last 300-400 years, with the advent of the state monopoly on armed violence, they have been greatly marginalized. Recently, the demand for them has grown, giving birth to a supply.
The earliest private military campaigns currently in operation date back to the Cold War. The leadership of the United States, Great Britain, Israel, South Africa, to put it mildly, did not object to their creation (more precisely, they directly contributed to this process). PMCs could be entrusted with the most "dirty" work (such as overthrowing legitimate governments or organizing terrorist groups), and in case of failure, disown them under the pretext that commercial structures were operating.
The demand for PMC services was gradually growing. In the third world, a mass of "failed countries" arose, whose governments gladly resorted to the services of private structures, which were real professional armies. They were used both as the army itself (for its intended purpose) and for the training of national military personnel. The transnational corporations operating in these troubled countries also hired PMCs, since they needed reliable protection.
After the end of the Cold War, the demand for the services of PMCs became even higher, while in connection with the collapse of the armed forces both in the West and in the East, there was an explosive growth in supply, many dismissed military personnel entered the labor market, a very significant part of whom were looking for the use of their experience. if the job paid well. These were people who at one time went to the army by vocation.
By the mid-2000s, the number of PMCs (we are talking about companies that provide military services, and not those involved in logistics) exceeded one hundred, the number of their employees reached 2 million people, the total market capitalization exceeded $ 20 billion, and the volume of services provided amounted, according to various sources, from 60 to 180 billion dollars per year.
PMCs are engaged in demining, guarding important facilities, organizing the delivery of various kinds of goods, developing plans for the military development of states and the combat use of their armies (for example, MPRI was preparing the Croatian Armed Forces, which in the fall of 1995 defeated and eliminated Serbian Krajina). In this regard, official international organizations, including the UN, sometimes become employers for PMCs.
"Private traders", striving to minimize costs, do not consider losses. These losses are not included in the official statistics of countries, which is very convenient from a propaganda point of view (after all, regular armies do not suffer damage, employees of private companies die). By the way, PMCs often include citizens of those countries that do not officially participate in the war and even condemn it. For example, a significant number of mercenaries from Germany are fighting in Iraq in the ranks of American and British PMCs, although official Berlin was and remains one of the main opponents of this war.
CONSEQUENCES OF THE "PRIVATIZATION OF WAR"
In general, many private military companies seek to recruit foreigners (that is, in this regard, PMCs are merging with the "official" armed forces). At the same time, preference is often given to citizens of the states of Eastern Europe and the republics of the former USSR, as well as developing countries, since they are ready to fight for less money than citizens of Western countries, whose salaries in conflict zones can reach 20 thousand dollars a month. It costs about 10 times more to maintain a mercenary than a regular army serviceman.
However, the fact that the state leadership is not formally responsible either for the losses of PMCs or for the crimes committed by their employees leads to their increasing use in wars, either together with the regular armies or instead of them, the high cost fades into the background. So, in Iraq, more than 400 PMCs are involved, the total number of their personnel is more than 200 thousand people, which significantly exceeds the number of US military personnel and their allies. Likewise, the losses of these structures are at least no less than those of the regular armies, but they are not taken into account in official statistics.
It is not surprising that PMCs constantly become participants in all sorts of scandals, since their employees behave in relation to the civilian population much more cruel than the "official" military personnel (in Iraq, in this regard, Blackwater was especially "famous", whose services in the end had to be abandoned). In the summer of 2009, "fighters" of one of the American PMCs forcibly released their colleague, who was detained by the Afghan police, while nine Afghan police officers were killed, including the chief of police in Kandahar.
In addition to "the actual war" (including services for mine clearance and military planning) PMCs are taking on more and more auxiliary functions. These are all types of logistic support (including, for example, cooking food for military personnel and cleaning barracks), engineering support, airfield services, and transport services. In recent years, intelligence has become a new area of activity for PMCs (10 years ago, it was almost impossible to imagine such a thing). Thus, the development companies of the Predator and Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles, which are actively used by the Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, are fully engaged in their maintenance and management, including directly in a combat situation. An army officer only sets a general task. Other PMCs collect and analyze information about terrorist groups and provide the armed forces with translation services from Eastern languages.
And gradually the quantity turned into quality. Recently, the Pentagon discovered that the US Armed Forces, in principle, cannot function without private companies, even a limited military operation cannot be carried out without them. For example, it turned out that the supply of fuel and lubricants for the American group in Iraq was 100% privatized. It was once assumed that the attraction of private traders would lead to savings in the military budget. Now it is obvious that the situation is reversed, their services are much more expensive than if the Armed Forces performed them “on their own”. But, apparently, it's too late. The process has become irreversible.
The West is paying the price for its unwillingness to fight in a situation where the number of military threats has not only not decreased, but even increased (although the threats themselves have changed significantly compared to the times of the Cold War). The forced reduction of armies and the pacifization of what was left of the armies are inadequate to the real geopolitical situation. Foreigners and private traders naturally begin to fill the vacuum. In addition, this trend fits well into the process of globalization and denationalization of everything that is allowed and what is not. The role of states is becoming increasingly blurred, and corporations in the broadest sense of the word are beginning to take their place. This process also did not bypass the military sphere.
It is still difficult to assess the consequences of the emerging trend of "privatization of the war". There are vague suspicions that they may turn out to be very unexpected. And extremely unpleasant.
At the same time, in fact, no one has canceled the classic war either. Outside Europe and North America, it is quite possible. And you will need ordinary soldiers for it. Ready, you will laugh, die for your homeland. Most likely, after a while, this particular profession - to defend the homeland - will become the most scarce.
