In the United Arab Emirates, everyone is a prince, so they hire lesser beings to work for them and run their country. So why not some Special Forces?
Enter aspiring warlord and Oliver North wannabe, Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater (the infamous mercenaries hired by our own government for inside Iraq). Prince moved to Abu Dhabi a few years ago when US criminal investigations into his company got a little too hot.
From The New York Times yesterday:
[Prince was] hired by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign troops . . .
The force is intended to conduct special operations missions inside and outside the country, defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers from terrorist attacks and put down internal revolts, the documents show. Such troops could be deployed if the Emirates faced unrest in their crowded labor camps or were challenged by pro-democracy protests like those sweeping the Arab world this year.
In outsourcing critical parts of their defense to mercenaries — the soldiers of choice for medieval kings, Italian Renaissance dukes and African dictators — the Emiratis have begun a new era in the boom in wartime contracting that began after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. And by relying on a force largely created by Americans, they have introduced a volatile element in an already combustible region where the United States is widely viewed with suspicion.
A real Freedom Fighter that guy.
You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy. But you cannot have both.
Whatever Works 