Superpower for Hire: Rise of the Private Military
13,158,380
Published 2014-07-24
Vice takes an unprecedented look into the shadowy industry of Private Military Companies. For the past two decades these private companies, like Black Water, Aegis and G4S have silently consumed military operations around the world, doing everything from back end logistics, protection of government VIP's and diplomats to actual combat duties. In this documentary we explore the origins of this industry, their rise in the war on terror and their future operations around the world.
00:00 Intro
03:09 The Rise of PMCs
05:07 The Man Who Started it All
06:14 What It Takes to Become a Soldier for Hire
10:58 The Morals of PMCs
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All Comments (21)
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WATCH NEXT: What North Korea Doesn’t Want You To See - https://youtu.be/poHTA94-BeY
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Imagine Google fighting Amazon in 10 years in an open war.
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*Merryweather security how can I be of service
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Imagine Future Amazon, trading worldwide to even the most violent countries in the world-- securing their shipments with their own military. Imagine it growing to become the largest and most powerful army on earth. East India Company explained in one minute.
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I've worked for PMC's all over the world for almost a decade. The advantage to the US government is that they never have to report on PMC deaths. It almost never makes the news. It also gives the US plausible deniability and the ability to distance itself. Invariably, militaries in a protracted conflict break the rules. You can't live in a war for years and not. When a Soldier or Marine does something like desecrate a corpse or shoot civilians, the nation as a whole gets a big black eye. When it's a PMC, the government can basically hang that one contractor or that one company out to dry. The reality is, that company reforms under a new name and business goes on as normal. It also depends heavily on the company. Overall, I found that most companies contracting to the US government are fairly above board and at least have standards and codes of conduct. In Africa and South America, I found it to be a bit more of a free for all, though once again very dependent on the organization. I tell my buddies that are considering the PMC world after the military to be very careful and stick with US government contracting. It's a lot more above board and more like the name "High Risk Security". Outside of the US Government Contracts, you find jobs that start to flirt a lot more with being straight mercenary work.
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I CANT BELIEVE THIS IS SPONSORED BY CALL OF DUTY
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Doesn't matter, they'll never be able to stop Solid Snake.
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Vice in 2014: This Video Vice in 2020: YOU WANNA KNOW HOW TO GET FREE TACOS?
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The major problem with PMC is that they never want to put an end to any conflict
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I think the call of duty ads kind of undercut the serious tone of the piece.
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"he's asked to keep his location secret" then proceeds to show a license plate/tag number ten seconds later
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The old saying “we work for money, you want loyalty buy a dog.”
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"Anybody that's any good in the army, isn't in the army anymore" There's more truth to that then he realizes.
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The camera men of Vice do not get paid enough....
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The "Presented by Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare" was a real nice touch, Vice.
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Looks like the security guy was using the interviewer as a body shield haha
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"If you're good at something, never do it for free"
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I had my hair cut by a guy who worked for a PMC. Really interesting guy. Also talked about how hard it is to be a Contractor. You see all the same stuff soldiers do, but don’t have the support systems.
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4:20 "Outsourcing is always about cost savings..." Oh that's right, never about deniability. I always forget that.
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I went 35-6 in Favela.
