A few days ago, Justine Drennan wrote a blog post about Erik Prince. The latter is a former CEO of Blackwater and shared his ideas about ISIS. In response, Justine literally demolished Prince’s stance. I am not going to duplicate any information here rather add a South Asian perspective to that.

It is not uncommon among security forces to use mercenaries. And on many occasions there is a very blurred line between the regular troops and the mercenaries in an operational area. But the moment civil population wakes up to the reality of existence of mercenaries,  public support for security operations start drying up. With security forces eventually drawing a clear line the mercenaries become the collateral damage.

It may not have happened in Iraq but did in Kashmir where Ikhwan group ultimately became extinct. Ikhwan were also called pro-government insurgents. Bit of oxymoron there. Another example is Punjab where such mercenaries were called “black cats“. This article on “black cats” provides further links to human rights violations in Punjab.

Will the trick of covert ops work twice? Looks doubtful.