Re: Blackwater founder builds foreign force in UAE: report

[Guest guest]

Interesting and not uncommon in history. Many times rulers would hire foreigners to protect them because locals could not be trusted. Such "special units" made of locals have a tendency to pull coups and overthrow the ruler that hired them. Foreigners rarely do that, though they might walk off if they aren't paid.

UAE has a common problem in Arabia: Arab men won't do manual labor. So, they have to bring in foreign workers to do it. The oil fields especially are dominated by foreigners. Many of these are Iranians who's loyalty certainly lies with Iran than their employers.

The other thing is that units can be trained up well, but without good leaders in the unit, those skills can quickly decay leaving the unit useless. The US has trained many foreign units and seen this happen. Once the US cadre leaves, the troops fall apart. Sometimes this is deliberate because rulers decide the well trained unit is more of a threat than an asset, so it is broken up and the men scattered through the army where their skill will fade.

UAE and some of its neighbors also have a recent history of uprisings from Al Qaeda, Iranians, to even communists. Local forces can't usually handle them so often US or British troops have had to come in to deal with it. Even the French were called in some years back to clean the terrorists out of Mecca when they took over some of the buildings.

In a message dated 5/15/2011 12:10:19 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, no_reply writes:

Blackwater founder builds foreign force in UAE: report

[Guest guest]

Hired thugs. I wonder if they would hold out for more pay when the going got

thick, and what would happen to them if they did?

Administrator

Interesting and not uncommon in history. Many times rulers would hire foreigners

to protect them because locals could not be trusted. Such " special units " made

of locals have a tendency to pull coups and overthrow the ruler that hired them.

Foreigners rarely do that, though they might walk off if they aren't paid.