This reminds me of an interview I saw several years ago with Neall Ellis, a renowned gunship pilot and well known mercenary. He made an interesting point that this article makes me think of. If you are a small country and you need some extra trained and equipped security forces, hire old fashioned mercenary companies instead of PMCs with deep ties to their nation states. Many of these modern PMCs are not independent at all. Instead they are extensions of their home government and receive support like logistics and airbases from their countries’ military and government. Mercenary companies are usually paid directly by the government they are working for and are subject to direct oversight from the government.
Many of these modern PMCs are offered to assist small African countries for “free” by their home governments. Just remember “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch” and that favor often comes with a steep price tag. The Wagner Group is only one of the most well known ones. America and China have both been playing the same game and many other countries are as well. Fazi has it backwards. This is not the rise of nonstate actors. These are state affiliated actors pretending to be something else.
I’ve noticed that Thomas Fazi gets a few things backwards. Admittedly it is in vogue to say colonialism is bad when in fact is was European sponsored modernism of a large chunk of the developing world. Foolish people will chime in saying that the people never asked to be brought up to speed with Europe with many beneficial technologies and they would be right. But then again, not a single Westerner was ever asked if they were ok with countless millions of migrants and refugees being brought in. Now they are bullied into accepting it or being branded a racist.
One other bit of purposely forgotten tidbit of information never gets brought up. That is that many countries, especially in Africa actually invited the Europeans in because they brought not just improvements, but also peace and security to a continent that was rife with infighting.
What is being done in Africa today with a lot of these PMC’s is worse because they don’t do anything to improve the lives of ordinary Africans unlike the colonial powers.
About as many Europeans were asked about being “brought up to speed” as those native to foreign lands. The future arrives whether we like it or not. Countless millions of ordinary Europeans were forced off their land, forced down mines, forced into factories and forced – often under threat of capital punishment – to emigrate.
When we have arguments about colonialism we tend to forget it was largely a change of elites. The incumbent elites were no more peaceful shepherds of their people than the incoming imperialists. Indeed, the largest part of the British Empire was won from another occupying empire.
The British Empire ended not in the sunlit uplands of freedom but in a new kind of international organisation with a new cast of elites calling the shots. For ordinary people everywhere, just another future dawned that they didn’t have much say in.
And where now? The future of Net Zero, CBDC, CEI and ESG isn’t influenced by ordinary people (whether these are good things or bad) but by a very select and small elite working in organisations such as Open Society and WEF. Sure, the Open Society and WEF might be of the West and I am Western, but in what way am I responsible for what they do?
Scottish shepherds,weavers,crofters,whole villages forced out of their homes. Their houses and barns set on fire as they stood outside bewildered. Then forced at the point of bayonets down to the beach. The point forcibly made,get on a ship to America or Canada or die of exposure. That happened to one of my ancestral families. They went to Nova Scotia,best thing ever happened to em I reckon, ultimately. I always say the best thing about Scotland is the road out of it.
That may well be true, but when they arrived in Nova Scotia did the government there welcome them or put them on a boat to some “friendly” African country, after keeping them locked up for 18 months before turning down their application to settle?
Given the name NS I would imagine they welcomed them?
After wasn’t it previously called Arcadia and full of Frogs who had to be deported to Louisiana? and thus the word ‘Cajun’ or something like that?
Given the name NS I would imagine they welcomed them?
After wasn’t it previously called Arcadia and full of Frogs who had to be deported to Louisiana? and thus the word ‘Cajun’ or something like that?
That may well be true, but when they arrived in Nova Scotia did the government there welcome them or put them on a boat to some “friendly” African country, after keeping them locked up for 18 months before turning down their application to settle?
Scottish shepherds,weavers,crofters,whole villages forced out of their homes. Their houses and barns set on fire as they stood outside bewildered. Then forced at the point of bayonets down to the beach. The point forcibly made,get on a ship to America or Canada or die of exposure. That happened to one of my ancestral families. They went to Nova Scotia,best thing ever happened to em I reckon, ultimately. I always say the best thing about Scotland is the road out of it.
One needs railways, mechanical and electrical equipment, trains, power stations, docks, roads, lorries, ships and trained staff which are a product of schools, to export the minerals. It is almost as if people believe minerals and oil somehow magically leave the ground and end up in the West.
In Mozambique during Civil war Tiny Rowland payed mercenaries to protect his railway which provided only security for much of the population.
Oil has seeped out of the ground in the Middle East and been used for millennia but it was not until The West developed modern water well drilling rigs adapted them to oil production was crude oil abstracted from the ground. Why did the Sumerians not invent the steam locomotive, petrol engine and the oil rig?Pitch seeped out of the ground and was used to water proof boats but noone thought of investigating the source.
One needs railways, mechanical and electrical equipment, trains, power stations, docks, roads, lorries, ships and trained staff which are a product of schools, to export the minerals. It is almost as if people believe minerals and oil somehow magically leave the ground and end up in the West.
In Mozambique during Civil war Tiny Rowland payed mercenaries to protect his railway which provided only security for much of the population.
Oil has seeped out of the ground in the Middle East and been used for millennia but it was not until The West developed modern water well drilling rigs adapted them to oil production was crude oil abstracted from the ground. Why did the Sumerians not invent the steam locomotive, petrol engine and the oil rig?Pitch seeped out of the ground and was used to water proof boats but noone thought of investigating the source.
About as many Europeans were asked about being “brought up to speed” as those native to foreign lands. The future arrives whether we like it or not. Countless millions of ordinary Europeans were forced off their land, forced down mines, forced into factories and forced – often under threat of capital punishment – to emigrate.
When we have arguments about colonialism we tend to forget it was largely a change of elites. The incumbent elites were no more peaceful shepherds of their people than the incoming imperialists. Indeed, the largest part of the British Empire was won from another occupying empire.
The British Empire ended not in the sunlit uplands of freedom but in a new kind of international organisation with a new cast of elites calling the shots. For ordinary people everywhere, just another future dawned that they didn’t have much say in.
And where now? The future of Net Zero, CBDC, CEI and ESG isn’t influenced by ordinary people (whether these are good things or bad) but by a very select and small elite working in organisations such as Open Society and WEF. Sure, the Open Society and WEF might be of the West and I am Western, but in what way am I responsible for what they do?
I’ve noticed that Thomas Fazi gets a few things backwards. Admittedly it is in vogue to say colonialism is bad when in fact is was European sponsored modernism of a large chunk of the developing world. Foolish people will chime in saying that the people never asked to be brought up to speed with Europe with many beneficial technologies and they would be right. But then again, not a single Westerner was ever asked if they were ok with countless millions of migrants and refugees being brought in. Now they are bullied into accepting it or being branded a racist.
One other bit of purposely forgotten tidbit of information never gets brought up. That is that many countries, especially in Africa actually invited the Europeans in because they brought not just improvements, but also peace and security to a continent that was rife with infighting.
What is being done in Africa today with a lot of these PMC’s is worse because they don’t do anything to improve the lives of ordinary Africans unlike the colonial powers.
Matt Hindman
1 year ago
This reminds me of an interview I saw several years ago with Neall Ellis, a renowned gunship pilot and well known mercenary. He made an interesting point that this article makes me think of. If you are a small country and you need some extra trained and equipped security forces, hire old fashioned mercenary companies instead of PMCs with deep ties to their nation states. Many of these modern PMCs are not independent at all. Instead they are extensions of their home government and receive support like logistics and airbases from their countries’ military and government. Mercenary companies are usually paid directly by the government they are working for and are subject to direct oversight from the government.
Many of these modern PMCs are offered to assist small African countries for “free” by their home governments. Just remember “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch” and that favor often comes with a steep price tag. The Wagner Group is only one of the most well known ones. America and China have both been playing the same game and many other countries are as well. Fazi has it backwards. This is not the rise of nonstate actors. These are state affiliated actors pretending to be something else.
Last edited 1 year ago by Matt Hindman
Michael Walsh
1 year ago
Another factor: with the US military forced by the governing class to serve as their laboratory for bizarre social-science experiments, it becomes necessary to farm out the grim stuff to professionals.
Even Bidens controllers are scared of those American Moms. A White House lawn encampment of them could stop the Ukraine war. That’s why even they dare not send “boots on the ground” but luckily there is ukranians to sacrifice as no one cares,and now we’re getting a bit low on ukranians Duda is offering Poles,as a sacrifice to Molech,but will they coco. I always thought Poles were quite smart with a bit of independent spirit to them
Depends what you mean by professional. Not all PMCs are the same. Some are superb with ex SF operators. Others in Iraq were recruiting doormen from nightclubs in Glasgow and Liverpool.
Never a truer word spaketh..The Americans even worse. Not unlike the ” pleece” in nu britn, experienced former Officers, Warrant Officers, Sergeants and soldiers plus that ‘ command and control” hirearchy and orders system is crucial, and not only ex Sergeants or other ranks…
Never a truer word spaketh..The Americans even worse. Not unlike the ” pleece” in nu britn, experienced former Officers, Warrant Officers, Sergeants and soldiers plus that ‘ command and control” hirearchy and orders system is crucial, and not only ex Sergeants or other ranks…
Even Bidens controllers are scared of those American Moms. A White House lawn encampment of them could stop the Ukraine war. That’s why even they dare not send “boots on the ground” but luckily there is ukranians to sacrifice as no one cares,and now we’re getting a bit low on ukranians Duda is offering Poles,as a sacrifice to Molech,but will they coco. I always thought Poles were quite smart with a bit of independent spirit to them
Depends what you mean by professional. Not all PMCs are the same. Some are superb with ex SF operators. Others in Iraq were recruiting doormen from nightclubs in Glasgow and Liverpool.
You are almost as snarky as our Michael Walsh of The Daily Wire here in U.S.
Last edited 1 year ago by Betsy Arehart
Michael Walsh
1 year ago
Another factor: with the US military forced by the governing class to serve as their laboratory for bizarre social-science experiments, it becomes necessary to farm out the grim stuff to professionals.
Perry de Havilland
1 year ago
Meh, PMCs are just armed QUANGOs & really just a different way of delivering a government ‘service’. They no more change the fundamentally nature of what a military does than privatising a municipal refuse collection system or a railway.
Indeed. In Iraq and Afghanistan they didn’t replace the militaries, they augmented them. There were never enough military people to guard every installation, that’s where the PMCs made their steady income.
Indeed. In Iraq and Afghanistan they didn’t replace the militaries, they augmented them. There were never enough military people to guard every installation, that’s where the PMCs made their steady income.
Perry de Havilland
1 year ago
Meh, PMCs are just armed QUANGOs & really just a different way of delivering a government ‘service’. They no more change the fundamentally nature of what a military does than privatising a municipal refuse collection system or a railway.
Michael McElwee
1 year ago
In Flaubert’s Solommbo the nature of the mercenary is revealed in the same way Mr Fazi reveals it: A great blessing but only so long as one can pay the bill. There is a broader point here, but exactly how to put it, I’m not so sure.
Michael McElwee
1 year ago
In Flaubert’s Solommbo the nature of the mercenary is revealed in the same way Mr Fazi reveals it: A great blessing but only so long as one can pay the bill. There is a broader point here, but exactly how to put it, I’m not so sure.
Arthur G
1 year ago
If a PMC works only for one Gov’t, then they are no more mercenaries than are professional volunteer soldiers. They’re just another arm of the state.
Arthur G
1 year ago
If a PMC works only for one Gov’t, then they are no more mercenaries than are professional volunteer soldiers. They’re just another arm of the state.
I suspect that Mr Fazi doesn’t choose the headline. Nevertheless, what does hiring a private entity to provide a benefit have to do with death to democracy? Surely the point is to deliver a service to the citizens most efficiently, not to employ the greatest number in government service.
Andrew Holmes
1 year ago
I suspect that Mr Fazi doesn’t choose the headline. Nevertheless, what does hiring a private entity to provide a benefit have to do with death to democracy? Surely the point is to deliver a service to the citizens most efficiently, not to employ the greatest number in government service.
Reginald Duquesnoy
1 year ago
Shadow warriors for enemy combatants, or freedom fighters? A bit of collateral damage, asymmetric warfare…The Americans do have a way with words!
Christopher Chantrill
1 year ago
I suspect that Clausewitz’s ideas were strongly influenced by the post Thirty Years War culture of Never Again.
But I am encouraged that international bureaucrats and Special Rapporteurs are on the job. I think we can be confident that the whole problem should be solved by the middle of the next century.
Clausewitz was influenced by his time. Since we no longer array ourselves in neat lines and fire muskets, it might be time to find another military theorist to quote. The focus on kinetic activity is too black and white for the modern battlefield, especially in COIN ops
David Lindsay
1 year ago
On this, on Margaret Thatcher, and on Buddhism, my comments have been taken down. I pay for this.
Nicky Samengo-Turner
1 year ago
Whilst the media ignore the wars that these people are fighting all over the African continent, against Islamic insurgents, here in nu britn no such insurgents are needed: their conservative party fifth column just provides them with the ” islamophobic” trojan horse and not a shot needs to be fired….. Scotland is half way there, but of course, we are not allowed to publicly state that as the Essex gollywog police will sent 3 car loads of cuntstables to arrest us for hate crime.
Ian Johnston
1 year ago
The total collapse of state capacity in the armaments industry of the West is another manifestation of the neoliberalisation of everything.
As is the inability to enforce sanctions, where private companies have effectively bought themselves hyper-secrecy through law via the corruption of politicians.
David Lindsay
1 year ago
Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, the Interim Prime Minister of Mali in the military junta that came to power in May 2021, has expelled all non-governmental organisations that were funded or supported by France. France has never stopped having an empire in Africa, where it fights wars that more than give the lie to lazy jokes about lack of military prowess, and where it maintains two effectively interchangeable currencies across a total of 14 countries with a combined population of 193 million and a combined GDP of $283 billion. A lot of French blood and treasure goes into all of this, yet France recently ended all development aid to Mali three months after it had withdrawn the forces that had spent nine years fighting a major Islamist insurgency that was very much ongoing. In response, Mali has kicked out the French and French-backed NGOs. What is going on?
France asserts that Mali has brought in the Wagner Group, disguised as Russian military instructors. There is every reason to believe that. The voting figures at the United Nations over Ukraine have awoken a sleepy “international community” to the breadth and depth of continuing Russian ties to the old anti-imperial struggles that had often been supported by the Soviet Union. Throughout this century, China will also continue to benefit from that legacy of goodwill. Wagner Group arms and ammunition, up to and including four Mil Mi-17 helicopters, have certainly arrived in Mali. A base has clearly been built near the airport of the capital, Bamako, a city of 2.8 million. The Group has also taken over the former French bases at Gossi, Kidal, Tessalit and Timbuktu. Numbering 400 across the country, those instructors would have to be delivering an awful lot of instruction. Not all of them are Russians. Clashes with jihadists have already killed at least one of them as a matter of official record, although they in turn have already killed at least 200 jihadists.
Africa has been Wagner country for quite some time. The Group provided bodyguards to several candidates in the 2018 Presidential Election in Madagascar, even including the winner who had been favoured by China and the United States, thereby guaranteeing the Russian takeover of Kraoma, Madagascar’s national chromite producer. The Wagner Group had also been guarding the chrome mines themselves. Its involvement in Mozambique has been extensive. Its participation in the never-ending Libyan Civil War remains so. Ignore anyone who tells you that that war is over. More than anywhere else, however, the Wagner Group’s African operations have been, and continue to be, in the Central African Republic. Again, that is in the French sphere of influence, although the Group originally went in there, in 2018, to fill the security vacuum that had been left by the French military withdrawal, in 2016, following the loss of three quarters of the country’s territory to rebel control. By all accounts, it is guarding the diamond mines in regime-controlled and rebel-controlled areas alike, as it also takes a great interest in the diamonds, gold, uranium, and thus government of Sudan. There has lately been an operation to take down cryptocurrencies, not that I am any fan of those, after the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender in the CAR had posed a threat to the CFA franc, itself pegged to the euro and so on. The CAR is a front line in the Great Game as it is being played in the present age. There are anything up to 2000 Wagner Group personnel there, if not more, and it has a firm grip on a number of government institutions, including the General Staff, such that it supervises or directly commands most of the units of the Armed Forces, including at least one EU-trained battalion. Known as Black Russians, hundreds of Centrafricans, former rebels who surrendered, are now fighting for the Wagner Group in Ukraine, or are awaiting deployment there from Russia.
A key figure in the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has claimed to a Finnish newspaper that 20 or so Finns were fighting in a British battalion, commanded by a former United States Marine Corps general. There are not many former United States Marine Corps generals, so which one do we think that it is, and why? It is rubbish, of course. But just as you can bet your life that there are British and American Nazis fighting on the other side, you can bet your life that there are British and American pure mercenaries in the Wagner Group. We have no interest in whether that or the Azov Battallion won, just so long as it did not bother us, which it would have no cause to do unless we had been foolish enough to have backed its enemy. Yet on a cross-party basis, Britain is indeed engaged in such folly.
And there was I thinking all along that the Wagner group was headed up by the Wagner singing chappie off the ” Pop Idol” TV prog.
David Lindsay
1 year ago
Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, the Interim Prime Minister of Mali in the military junta that came to power in May 2021, has expelled all non-governmental organisations that were funded or supported by France. France has never stopped having an empire in Africa, where it fights wars that more than give the lie to lazy jokes about lack of military prowess, and where it maintains two effectively interchangeable currencies across a total of 14 countries with a combined population of 193 million and a combined GDP of $283 billion. A lot of French blood and treasure goes into all of this, yet France recently ended all development aid to Mali three months after it had withdrawn the forces that had spent nine years fighting a major Islamist insurgency that was very much ongoing. In response, Mali has kicked out the French and French-backed NGOs. What is going on?
France asserts that Mali has brought in the Wagner Group, disguised as Russian military instructors. There is every reason to believe that. The voting figures at the United Nations over Ukraine have awoken a sleepy “international community” to the breadth and depth of continuing Russian ties to the old anti-imperial struggles that had often been supported by the Soviet Union. Throughout this century, China will also continue to benefit from that legacy of goodwill. Wagner Group arms and ammunition, up to and including four Mil Mi-17 helicopters, have certainly arrived in Mali. A base has clearly been built near the airport of the capital, Bamako, a city of 2.8 million. The Group has also taken over the former French bases at Gossi, Kidal, Tessalit and Timbuktu. Numbering 400 across the country, those instructors would have to be delivering an awful lot of instruction. Not all of them are Russians. Clashes with jihadists have already killed at least one of them as a matter of official record, although they in turn have already killed at least 200 jihadists.
Africa has been Wagner country for quite some time. The Group provided bodyguards to several candidates in the 2018 Presidential Election in Madagascar, even including the winner who had been favoured by China and the United States, thereby guaranteeing the Russian takeover of Kraoma, Madagascar’s national chromite producer. The Wagner Group had also been guarding the chrome mines themselves. Its involvement in Mozambique has been extensive. Its participation in the never-ending Libyan Civil War remains so. Ignore anyone who tells you that that war is over. More than anywhere else, however, the Wagner Group’s African operations have been, and continue to be, in the Central African Republic. Again, that is in the French sphere of influence, although the Group originally went in there, in 2018, to fill the security vacuum that had been left by the French military withdrawal, in 2016, following the loss of three quarters of the country’s territory to rebel control. By all accounts, it is guarding the diamond mines in regime-controlled and rebel-controlled areas alike, as it also takes a great interest in the diamonds, gold, uranium, and thus government of Sudan. There has lately been an operation to take down cryptocurrencies, not that I am any fan of those, after the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender in the CAR had posed a threat to the CFA franc, itself pegged to the euro and so on. The CAR is a front line in the Great Game as it is being played in the present age. There are anything up to 2000 Wagner Group personnel there, if not more, and it has a firm grip on a number of government institutions, including the General Staff, such that it supervises or directly commands most of the units of the Armed Forces, including at least one EU-trained battalion. Known as Black Russians, hundreds of Centrafricans, former rebels who surrendered, are now fighting for the Wagner Group in Ukraine, or are awaiting deployment there from Russia.
A key figure in the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has claimed to a Finnish newspaper that 20 or so Finns were fighting in a British battalion, commanded by a former United States Marine Corps general. There are not many former United States Marine Corps generals, so which one do we think that it is, and why? It is rubbish, of course. But just as you can bet your life that there are British and American Nazis fighting on the other side, you can bet your life that there are British and American pure mercenaries in the Wagner Group. We have no interest in whether that or the Azov Battallion won, just so long as it did not bother us, which it would have no cause to do unless we had been foolish enough to have backed its enemy. Yet on a cross-party basis, Britain is indeed engaged in such folly.
This reminds me of an interview I saw several years ago with Neall Ellis, a renowned gunship pilot and well known mercenary. He made an interesting point that this article makes me think of. If you are a small country and you need some extra trained and equipped security forces, hire old fashioned mercenary companies instead of PMCs with deep ties to their nation states. Many of these modern PMCs are not independent at all. Instead they are extensions of their home government and receive support like logistics and airbases from their countries’ military and government. Mercenary companies are usually paid directly by the government they are working for and are subject to direct oversight from the government.
Many of these modern PMCs are offered to assist small African countries for “free” by their home governments. Just remember “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch” and that favor often comes with a steep price tag. The Wagner Group is only one of the most well known ones. America and China have both been playing the same game and many other countries are as well. Fazi has it backwards. This is not the rise of nonstate actors. These are state affiliated actors pretending to be something else.
I’ve noticed that Thomas Fazi gets a few things backwards. Admittedly it is in vogue to say colonialism is bad when in fact is was European sponsored modernism of a large chunk of the developing world. Foolish people will chime in saying that the people never asked to be brought up to speed with Europe with many beneficial technologies and they would be right. But then again, not a single Westerner was ever asked if they were ok with countless millions of migrants and refugees being brought in. Now they are bullied into accepting it or being branded a racist.
One other bit of purposely forgotten tidbit of information never gets brought up. That is that many countries, especially in Africa actually invited the Europeans in because they brought not just improvements, but also peace and security to a continent that was rife with infighting.
What is being done in Africa today with a lot of these PMC’s is worse because they don’t do anything to improve the lives of ordinary Africans unlike the colonial powers.
About as many Europeans were asked about being “brought up to speed” as those native to foreign lands. The future arrives whether we like it or not. Countless millions of ordinary Europeans were forced off their land, forced down mines, forced into factories and forced – often under threat of capital punishment – to emigrate.
When we have arguments about colonialism we tend to forget it was largely a change of elites. The incumbent elites were no more peaceful shepherds of their people than the incoming imperialists. Indeed, the largest part of the British Empire was won from another occupying empire.
The British Empire ended not in the sunlit uplands of freedom but in a new kind of international organisation with a new cast of elites calling the shots. For ordinary people everywhere, just another future dawned that they didn’t have much say in.
And where now? The future of Net Zero, CBDC, CEI and ESG isn’t influenced by ordinary people (whether these are good things or bad) but by a very select and small elite working in organisations such as Open Society and WEF. Sure, the Open Society and WEF might be of the West and I am Western, but in what way am I responsible for what they do?
“often under threat of capital punishment – to emigrate.”
Surely you mean as an ALTERNATIVE to capital punishment? ie: Transportation, sometimes for life.
Scottish shepherds,weavers,crofters,whole villages forced out of their homes. Their houses and barns set on fire as they stood outside bewildered. Then forced at the point of bayonets down to the beach. The point forcibly made,get on a ship to America or Canada or die of exposure. That happened to one of my ancestral families. They went to Nova Scotia,best thing ever happened to em I reckon, ultimately. I always say the best thing about Scotland is the road out of it.
The “clearances “ were mainly the work of Scotch landlords seeking to maximise their investment. What’s wrong with that?
That may well be true, but when they arrived in Nova Scotia did the government there welcome them or put them on a boat to some “friendly” African country, after keeping them locked up for 18 months before turning down their application to settle?
Given the name NS I would imagine they welcomed them?
After wasn’t it previously called Arcadia and full of Frogs who had to be deported to Louisiana? and thus the word ‘Cajun’ or something like that?
There was no government to welcome them. We just stole it from the French, who had stolen it in turn from the Mikmaks.
“‘Twas ever thus”.
Yes, I suppose so.
Yes, I suppose so.
“‘Twas ever thus”.
There was no government to welcome them. We just stole it from the French, who had stolen it in turn from the Mikmaks.
Given the name NS I would imagine they welcomed them?
After wasn’t it previously called Arcadia and full of Frogs who had to be deported to Louisiana? and thus the word ‘Cajun’ or something like that?
The “clearances “ were mainly the work of Scotch landlords seeking to maximise their investment. What’s wrong with that?
That may well be true, but when they arrived in Nova Scotia did the government there welcome them or put them on a boat to some “friendly” African country, after keeping them locked up for 18 months before turning down their application to settle?
Scottish shepherds,weavers,crofters,whole villages forced out of their homes. Their houses and barns set on fire as they stood outside bewildered. Then forced at the point of bayonets down to the beach. The point forcibly made,get on a ship to America or Canada or die of exposure. That happened to one of my ancestral families. They went to Nova Scotia,best thing ever happened to em I reckon, ultimately. I always say the best thing about Scotland is the road out of it.
Indeed. Great concept you have identified here. We are all under the influence of the new colonialism.
Also, much of British colonialism in Africa was about ending slavery.
And getting mineral resources for free but we have them Jesus in exchange.
I presume you mean that wasn’t a good exchange.
Blasphemer!
Blasphemer!
One needs railways, mechanical and electrical equipment, trains, power stations, docks, roads, lorries, ships and trained staff which are a product of schools, to export the minerals. It is almost as if people believe minerals and oil somehow magically leave the ground and end up in the West.
In Mozambique during Civil war Tiny Rowland payed mercenaries to protect his railway which provided only security for much of the population.
Oil has seeped out of the ground in the Middle East and been used for millennia but it was not until The West developed modern water well drilling rigs adapted them to oil production was crude oil abstracted from the ground. Why did the Sumerians not invent the steam locomotive, petrol engine and the oil rig?Pitch seeped out of the ground and was used to water proof boats but noone thought of investigating the source.
I presume you mean that wasn’t a good exchange.
One needs railways, mechanical and electrical equipment, trains, power stations, docks, roads, lorries, ships and trained staff which are a product of schools, to export the minerals. It is almost as if people believe minerals and oil somehow magically leave the ground and end up in the West.
In Mozambique during Civil war Tiny Rowland payed mercenaries to protect his railway which provided only security for much of the population.
Oil has seeped out of the ground in the Middle East and been used for millennia but it was not until The West developed modern water well drilling rigs adapted them to oil production was crude oil abstracted from the ground. Why did the Sumerians not invent the steam locomotive, petrol engine and the oil rig?Pitch seeped out of the ground and was used to water proof boats but noone thought of investigating the source.
And getting mineral resources for free but we have them Jesus in exchange.
“often under threat of capital punishment – to emigrate.”
Surely you mean as an ALTERNATIVE to capital punishment? ie: Transportation, sometimes for life.
Indeed. Great concept you have identified here. We are all under the influence of the new colonialism.
Also, much of British colonialism in Africa was about ending slavery.
I was never happy with the Romans coming over here and building their straight roads and bath-houses. I mean, what did they ever do for us?
.. and Africa still cant manage even that!
.. and Africa still cant manage even that!
About as many Europeans were asked about being “brought up to speed” as those native to foreign lands. The future arrives whether we like it or not. Countless millions of ordinary Europeans were forced off their land, forced down mines, forced into factories and forced – often under threat of capital punishment – to emigrate.
When we have arguments about colonialism we tend to forget it was largely a change of elites. The incumbent elites were no more peaceful shepherds of their people than the incoming imperialists. Indeed, the largest part of the British Empire was won from another occupying empire.
The British Empire ended not in the sunlit uplands of freedom but in a new kind of international organisation with a new cast of elites calling the shots. For ordinary people everywhere, just another future dawned that they didn’t have much say in.
And where now? The future of Net Zero, CBDC, CEI and ESG isn’t influenced by ordinary people (whether these are good things or bad) but by a very select and small elite working in organisations such as Open Society and WEF. Sure, the Open Society and WEF might be of the West and I am Western, but in what way am I responsible for what they do?
I was never happy with the Romans coming over here and building their straight roads and bath-houses. I mean, what did they ever do for us?
I’ve noticed that Thomas Fazi gets a few things backwards. Admittedly it is in vogue to say colonialism is bad when in fact is was European sponsored modernism of a large chunk of the developing world. Foolish people will chime in saying that the people never asked to be brought up to speed with Europe with many beneficial technologies and they would be right. But then again, not a single Westerner was ever asked if they were ok with countless millions of migrants and refugees being brought in. Now they are bullied into accepting it or being branded a racist.
One other bit of purposely forgotten tidbit of information never gets brought up. That is that many countries, especially in Africa actually invited the Europeans in because they brought not just improvements, but also peace and security to a continent that was rife with infighting.
What is being done in Africa today with a lot of these PMC’s is worse because they don’t do anything to improve the lives of ordinary Africans unlike the colonial powers.
This reminds me of an interview I saw several years ago with Neall Ellis, a renowned gunship pilot and well known mercenary. He made an interesting point that this article makes me think of. If you are a small country and you need some extra trained and equipped security forces, hire old fashioned mercenary companies instead of PMCs with deep ties to their nation states. Many of these modern PMCs are not independent at all. Instead they are extensions of their home government and receive support like logistics and airbases from their countries’ military and government. Mercenary companies are usually paid directly by the government they are working for and are subject to direct oversight from the government.
Many of these modern PMCs are offered to assist small African countries for “free” by their home governments. Just remember “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch” and that favor often comes with a steep price tag. The Wagner Group is only one of the most well known ones. America and China have both been playing the same game and many other countries are as well. Fazi has it backwards. This is not the rise of nonstate actors. These are state affiliated actors pretending to be something else.
Another factor: with the US military forced by the governing class to serve as their laboratory for bizarre social-science experiments, it becomes necessary to farm out the grim stuff to professionals.
Lest they experience the trauma of a run in their nylons.
Even Bidens controllers are scared of those American Moms. A White House lawn encampment of them could stop the Ukraine war. That’s why even they dare not send “boots on the ground” but luckily there is ukranians to sacrifice as no one cares,and now we’re getting a bit low on ukranians Duda is offering Poles,as a sacrifice to Molech,but will they coco. I always thought Poles were quite smart with a bit of independent spirit to them
Depends what you mean by professional. Not all PMCs are the same. Some are superb with ex SF operators. Others in Iraq were recruiting doormen from nightclubs in Glasgow and Liverpool.
Never a truer word spaketh..The Americans even worse. Not unlike the ” pleece” in nu britn, experienced former Officers, Warrant Officers, Sergeants and soldiers plus that ‘ command and control” hirearchy and orders system is crucial, and not only ex Sergeants or other ranks…
Never a truer word spaketh..The Americans even worse. Not unlike the ” pleece” in nu britn, experienced former Officers, Warrant Officers, Sergeants and soldiers plus that ‘ command and control” hirearchy and orders system is crucial, and not only ex Sergeants or other ranks…
You are almost as snarky as our Michael Walsh of The Daily Wire here in U.S.
Lest they experience the trauma of a run in their nylons.
Even Bidens controllers are scared of those American Moms. A White House lawn encampment of them could stop the Ukraine war. That’s why even they dare not send “boots on the ground” but luckily there is ukranians to sacrifice as no one cares,and now we’re getting a bit low on ukranians Duda is offering Poles,as a sacrifice to Molech,but will they coco. I always thought Poles were quite smart with a bit of independent spirit to them
Depends what you mean by professional. Not all PMCs are the same. Some are superb with ex SF operators. Others in Iraq were recruiting doormen from nightclubs in Glasgow and Liverpool.
You are almost as snarky as our Michael Walsh of The Daily Wire here in U.S.
Another factor: with the US military forced by the governing class to serve as their laboratory for bizarre social-science experiments, it becomes necessary to farm out the grim stuff to professionals.
Meh, PMCs are just armed QUANGOs & really just a different way of delivering a government ‘service’. They no more change the fundamentally nature of what a military does than privatising a municipal refuse collection system or a railway.
Indeed. In Iraq and Afghanistan they didn’t replace the militaries, they augmented them. There were never enough military people to guard every installation, that’s where the PMCs made their steady income.
Indeed. In Iraq and Afghanistan they didn’t replace the militaries, they augmented them. There were never enough military people to guard every installation, that’s where the PMCs made their steady income.
Meh, PMCs are just armed QUANGOs & really just a different way of delivering a government ‘service’. They no more change the fundamentally nature of what a military does than privatising a municipal refuse collection system or a railway.
In Flaubert’s Solommbo the nature of the mercenary is revealed in the same way Mr Fazi reveals it: A great blessing but only so long as one can pay the bill. There is a broader point here, but exactly how to put it, I’m not so sure.
In Flaubert’s Solommbo the nature of the mercenary is revealed in the same way Mr Fazi reveals it: A great blessing but only so long as one can pay the bill. There is a broader point here, but exactly how to put it, I’m not so sure.
If a PMC works only for one Gov’t, then they are no more mercenaries than are professional volunteer soldiers. They’re just another arm of the state.
If a PMC works only for one Gov’t, then they are no more mercenaries than are professional volunteer soldiers. They’re just another arm of the state.
‘Cowboys’ one and all!
You’ve never met a cowboy.
It’s a ‘figure of speech’.
However I also presume all those original so called ‘cowboys’ are all dead? Far too many MALBORO cigarettes I presume?
It’s a ‘figure of speech’.
However I also presume all those original so called ‘cowboys’ are all dead? Far too many MALBORO cigarettes I presume?
You’ve never met a cowboy.
‘Cowboys’ one and all!
I suspect that Mr Fazi doesn’t choose the headline. Nevertheless, what does hiring a private entity to provide a benefit have to do with death to democracy? Surely the point is to deliver a service to the citizens most efficiently, not to employ the greatest number in government service.
I suspect that Mr Fazi doesn’t choose the headline. Nevertheless, what does hiring a private entity to provide a benefit have to do with death to democracy? Surely the point is to deliver a service to the citizens most efficiently, not to employ the greatest number in government service.
Shadow warriors for enemy combatants, or freedom fighters? A bit of collateral damage, asymmetric warfare…The Americans do have a way with words!
I suspect that Clausewitz’s ideas were strongly influenced by the post Thirty Years War culture of Never Again.
But I am encouraged that international bureaucrats and Special Rapporteurs are on the job. I think we can be confident that the whole problem should be solved by the middle of the next century.
Clausewitz was influenced by his time. Since we no longer array ourselves in neat lines and fire muskets, it might be time to find another military theorist to quote. The focus on kinetic activity is too black and white for the modern battlefield, especially in COIN ops
On this, on Margaret Thatcher, and on Buddhism, my comments have been taken down. I pay for this.
Whilst the media ignore the wars that these people are fighting all over the African continent, against Islamic insurgents, here in nu britn no such insurgents are needed: their conservative party fifth column just provides them with the ” islamophobic” trojan horse and not a shot needs to be fired….. Scotland is half way there, but of course, we are not allowed to publicly state that as the Essex gollywog police will sent 3 car loads of cuntstables to arrest us for hate crime.
The total collapse of state capacity in the armaments industry of the West is another manifestation of the neoliberalisation of everything.
As is the inability to enforce sanctions, where private companies have effectively bought themselves hyper-secrecy through law via the corruption of politicians.
Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, the Interim Prime Minister of Mali in the military junta that came to power in May 2021, has expelled all non-governmental organisations that were funded or supported by France. France has never stopped having an empire in Africa, where it fights wars that more than give the lie to lazy jokes about lack of military prowess, and where it maintains two effectively interchangeable currencies across a total of 14 countries with a combined population of 193 million and a combined GDP of $283 billion. A lot of French blood and treasure goes into all of this, yet France recently ended all development aid to Mali three months after it had withdrawn the forces that had spent nine years fighting a major Islamist insurgency that was very much ongoing. In response, Mali has kicked out the French and French-backed NGOs. What is going on?
France asserts that Mali has brought in the Wagner Group, disguised as Russian military instructors. There is every reason to believe that. The voting figures at the United Nations over Ukraine have awoken a sleepy “international community” to the breadth and depth of continuing Russian ties to the old anti-imperial struggles that had often been supported by the Soviet Union. Throughout this century, China will also continue to benefit from that legacy of goodwill. Wagner Group arms and ammunition, up to and including four Mil Mi-17 helicopters, have certainly arrived in Mali. A base has clearly been built near the airport of the capital, Bamako, a city of 2.8 million. The Group has also taken over the former French bases at Gossi, Kidal, Tessalit and Timbuktu. Numbering 400 across the country, those instructors would have to be delivering an awful lot of instruction. Not all of them are Russians. Clashes with jihadists have already killed at least one of them as a matter of official record, although they in turn have already killed at least 200 jihadists.
Africa has been Wagner country for quite some time. The Group provided bodyguards to several candidates in the 2018 Presidential Election in Madagascar, even including the winner who had been favoured by China and the United States, thereby guaranteeing the Russian takeover of Kraoma, Madagascar’s national chromite producer. The Wagner Group had also been guarding the chrome mines themselves. Its involvement in Mozambique has been extensive. Its participation in the never-ending Libyan Civil War remains so. Ignore anyone who tells you that that war is over. More than anywhere else, however, the Wagner Group’s African operations have been, and continue to be, in the Central African Republic. Again, that is in the French sphere of influence, although the Group originally went in there, in 2018, to fill the security vacuum that had been left by the French military withdrawal, in 2016, following the loss of three quarters of the country’s territory to rebel control. By all accounts, it is guarding the diamond mines in regime-controlled and rebel-controlled areas alike, as it also takes a great interest in the diamonds, gold, uranium, and thus government of Sudan. There has lately been an operation to take down cryptocurrencies, not that I am any fan of those, after the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender in the CAR had posed a threat to the CFA franc, itself pegged to the euro and so on. The CAR is a front line in the Great Game as it is being played in the present age. There are anything up to 2000 Wagner Group personnel there, if not more, and it has a firm grip on a number of government institutions, including the General Staff, such that it supervises or directly commands most of the units of the Armed Forces, including at least one EU-trained battalion. Known as Black Russians, hundreds of Centrafricans, former rebels who surrendered, are now fighting for the Wagner Group in Ukraine, or are awaiting deployment there from Russia.
A key figure in the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has claimed to a Finnish newspaper that 20 or so Finns were fighting in a British battalion, commanded by a former United States Marine Corps general. There are not many former United States Marine Corps generals, so which one do we think that it is, and why? It is rubbish, of course. But just as you can bet your life that there are British and American Nazis fighting on the other side, you can bet your life that there are British and American pure mercenaries in the Wagner Group. We have no interest in whether that or the Azov Battallion won, just so long as it did not bother us, which it would have no cause to do unless we had been foolish enough to have backed its enemy. Yet on a cross-party basis, Britain is indeed engaged in such folly.
And there was I thinking all along that the Wagner group was headed up by the Wagner singing chappie off the ” Pop Idol” TV prog.
And there was I thinking all along that the Wagner group was headed up by the Wagner singing chappie off the ” Pop Idol” TV prog.
Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, the Interim Prime Minister of Mali in the military junta that came to power in May 2021, has expelled all non-governmental organisations that were funded or supported by France. France has never stopped having an empire in Africa, where it fights wars that more than give the lie to lazy jokes about lack of military prowess, and where it maintains two effectively interchangeable currencies across a total of 14 countries with a combined population of 193 million and a combined GDP of $283 billion. A lot of French blood and treasure goes into all of this, yet France recently ended all development aid to Mali three months after it had withdrawn the forces that had spent nine years fighting a major Islamist insurgency that was very much ongoing. In response, Mali has kicked out the French and French-backed NGOs. What is going on?
France asserts that Mali has brought in the Wagner Group, disguised as Russian military instructors. There is every reason to believe that. The voting figures at the United Nations over Ukraine have awoken a sleepy “international community” to the breadth and depth of continuing Russian ties to the old anti-imperial struggles that had often been supported by the Soviet Union. Throughout this century, China will also continue to benefit from that legacy of goodwill. Wagner Group arms and ammunition, up to and including four Mil Mi-17 helicopters, have certainly arrived in Mali. A base has clearly been built near the airport of the capital, Bamako, a city of 2.8 million. The Group has also taken over the former French bases at Gossi, Kidal, Tessalit and Timbuktu. Numbering 400 across the country, those instructors would have to be delivering an awful lot of instruction. Not all of them are Russians. Clashes with jihadists have already killed at least one of them as a matter of official record, although they in turn have already killed at least 200 jihadists.
Africa has been Wagner country for quite some time. The Group provided bodyguards to several candidates in the 2018 Presidential Election in Madagascar, even including the winner who had been favoured by China and the United States, thereby guaranteeing the Russian takeover of Kraoma, Madagascar’s national chromite producer. The Wagner Group had also been guarding the chrome mines themselves. Its involvement in Mozambique has been extensive. Its participation in the never-ending Libyan Civil War remains so. Ignore anyone who tells you that that war is over. More than anywhere else, however, the Wagner Group’s African operations have been, and continue to be, in the Central African Republic. Again, that is in the French sphere of influence, although the Group originally went in there, in 2018, to fill the security vacuum that had been left by the French military withdrawal, in 2016, following the loss of three quarters of the country’s territory to rebel control. By all accounts, it is guarding the diamond mines in regime-controlled and rebel-controlled areas alike, as it also takes a great interest in the diamonds, gold, uranium, and thus government of Sudan. There has lately been an operation to take down cryptocurrencies, not that I am any fan of those, after the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender in the CAR had posed a threat to the CFA franc, itself pegged to the euro and so on. The CAR is a front line in the Great Game as it is being played in the present age. There are anything up to 2000 Wagner Group personnel there, if not more, and it has a firm grip on a number of government institutions, including the General Staff, such that it supervises or directly commands most of the units of the Armed Forces, including at least one EU-trained battalion. Known as Black Russians, hundreds of Centrafricans, former rebels who surrendered, are now fighting for the Wagner Group in Ukraine, or are awaiting deployment there from Russia.
A key figure in the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has claimed to a Finnish newspaper that 20 or so Finns were fighting in a British battalion, commanded by a former United States Marine Corps general. There are not many former United States Marine Corps generals, so which one do we think that it is, and why? It is rubbish, of course. But just as you can bet your life that there are British and American Nazis fighting on the other side, you can bet your life that there are British and American pure mercenaries in the Wagner Group. We have no interest in whether that or the Azov Battallion won, just so long as it did not bother us, which it would have no cause to do unless we had been foolish enough to have backed its enemy. Yet on a cross-party basis, Britain is indeed engaged in such folly.